County Road 15 road and drainage project on track for August reopening

Culvert replacement complete

Favorable weather conditions over the past two weeks allowed crews to replace the nine culverts on County Road 15 sooner than expected. As a result, we are well on our way to finishing this project in August.

With this work complete, crews will begin the next stage of the project--repaving.

Crews used large machinery to excavate the roadway and soils to locate and remove the existing culverts.

With the existing culverts removed, new culvert pieces were lowered and secured into place.

Once the culvert pieces were placed, crews backfilled the area with layers of dirt, sand and rocks to protect the culvert and ensure a solid base for the road above.

Paving begins this week

Crews are scheduled to repave County Road 15 starting this week between Dalchow Road/Market Avenue and Westedge Boulevard. 

Crews will use a method called full-depth reclamation, which involves removing and grinding up the existing asphalt down to the gravel layer. More than half of the existing asphalt is recycled with existing gravel and compacted to create a new road base for the new surface.

This method takes longer than mill and overlay, where crews remove a few layers and pave with all new asphalt. However, the pavement lasts longer with the reclamation method and we save natural resources and reduce costs by recycling materials.

Weather permitting, we expect paving to take 2-3 weeks to complete. When complete, crews will stripe the roadway and reopen the road to through traffic.

Continue to use the detour

Because of the reclamation paving process, County Road 15 remains closed to through traffic between Dalchow Road/Market Avenue and Westedge Boulevard. The County roads 15 and 92 intersection will remain open.

The detour for people driving uses: 

• Commerce Boulevard/County Road 110 
• Watertown Road (Hennepin County Road 6) / Carver County Road 20
• Carver County Road 127

Detour route during the County Road 15 closure. For a larger view of this map, click here.

People walking, biking and rolling will need to use the detour route or other alternative routes, but will need to remain outside of the construction area.

Local access during the closure 

We will maintain local access for residents and visitors in the immediate construction area.

This means you will still be able to get to your home, place of work or favorite business.

Expect roadway condition and configuration changes where crews are paving, as well as large equipment on site. Please use caution when traveling through. You are also encouraged to call ahead to local businesses or other destinations to check on access issues ahead of time.