"The big year will start a year later, and end about a year later," Pat Huston shared. He's the Assistant District Engineer for Major Projects.

According to MnDOT, some construction will begin this fall, but the public will not see significant traffic impacts until the spring of 2021.

Next spring, the project will move forward with I-35 traffic in single lane configuration. In the fall, northbound traffic will remain on I-35, and southbound traffic will be moved to Lower Michigan Street as planned. 

People have been attending monthly meetings to get an understanding about what will be happening. MnDOT said they will continue holding those meetings, to keep the public informed.

MnDOT has said there are three main reasons for the project. 1) to improve safety 2) replace aging infrastructure 3) accommodate larger truck loads into and out of the port.

The project budget remains at $343 million, and MnDOT works to be good stewards of its resources. They said by deferring the project for one year, they'll be able to obtain a better understanding of the unknowns, and give them an opportunity to better quantify costs. They have to clean up contaminated soil and water that will be moved during the project.

"We want to make sure we're not missing anything, and find an economic way to meet our environmental commitments. There's a lot of great people working on this, and we want to do our very best, and for the best value, put it back to modern standards," Huston said.

Huston added, "There won't be any single lane traffic on I-35 this season, which is good because of all the other construction."