Photo by Deb Gau Concrete crews were at work at the intersection of College Drive and Main Street on Friday afternoon. Representatives of R and G Construction said College Drive reconstruction is progressing, but it will be a few weeks before the intersection is open again.

MARSHALL — Street construction in the College Drive/Main Street intersection in Marshall is “progressing pretty well,” in spite of some rain this week, representatives of R and G Construction said.

However, it’s still too soon to say exactly when the intersection will re-open to traffic.

At a construction update meeting with local businesspeople, Scott Mathiowetz of R and G Construction said re-opening the Main Street intersection was likely still three or four weeks away. The concrete work to pave Highway 19 will need stretches of good weather, to complete, he said.

Construction at another key intersection in Marshall, College Drive and Bruce Street, is not as far along. However, it is also making progress, said Erika Coudron of R and G.

“We’ve completed the sanitary sewer, we’re started on the storm sewer” at the Bruce Street intersection, Coudron said. “We’re progressing well on that. The rain kind of slowed it a little bit, it got a little muddy, but we’re going to keep moving forward, and hopefully next week we’ll finish out the storm sewer and then switch over to installing water main.”

Reconstruction of Minnesota Highway 19 (College Drive) in Marshall’s downtown is part of a two-year project by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The first half of the project, running from Fairgrounds Road to Main Street, was completed last year.

In the ongoing construction work, curbs and gutters have been completed for the Main Street/College Drive intersection, and work continues for the traffic lights at the intersection, Coudron said. Crews were pouring the bases of the traffic signals, and doing underground electrical work, she said.

Concrete paving started in the intersection on Thursday. Coudron said crews would start by pouring a center lane, and then start filling in adjacent lanes.

“So that’s what you’re going to see, hopefully a lot of concrete work, weather permitting, this next week or so,” she said.

If the weather allows, concrete paving will continue next week between Main Street and the Liberty Park Bridge, Coudron said.

“They’ve started paving in Lyon Street, so that’s been a big focus of ours,” Coudron said.

Both the Bruce Street and Main Street intersections will remain closed to traffic while construction continues. The Addison public parking lot downtown remains open. Local traffic can cross East College Drive at the Redwood Street intersection.

A detour of Highway 19 remains in place for through traffic during construction. Traffic on Highway 19 should take Lyon County Road 33, Lyon County Road 7 and Minnesota Highway 23 to avoid the construction zone.

In her construction update, Coudron urged drivers to watch for pedestrians as they travel through Marshall.