To the editor:

I seriously doubt that the Minnesota Department of Transportation will complete the ten-years-overdue resurfacing of state Highway 23 Granite-to-Cottonwood in one season. That stretch is 18 miles and three of them are four-lane divided highway, which makes 21 miles of regular road.

A few years ago, when MnDOT put in passing lanes (one lane in each direction, which equals one mile of two-lane highway), the work took nearly four months.

We were detoured through Wood Lake, with cops everywhere. (Those passing lanes raise passing possibilities in one direction from about 75% to 100%, while cutting possibilities in the other direction from 75% to 0% for a net loss of 50%, so we drivers call these things “no passing lanes.”) Anyway, at the rate of four months per mile, the proposed project would be completed around 2035…if the weather is good.

And if MnDOT can knock off 21 miles in one season, how come it took four months for one mile?

David Pichaske

Granite Falls