Hwy. 14 expansion kicks off Friday

A ceremonial groundbreaking is scheduled for 2 p.m., Friday, Nov. 1 east of Owatonna to mark the kickoff of the Hwy. 14 expansion project between Dodge Center and Owatonna.
The event will mark the start of the nearly $108 million construction project. The site will be at the cul de sac at 2300 SE 54th Ave., Claremont, east of Owatonna. The public is invited to attend. State officials have been invited to attend and speak.
The ceremonial first shovels of dirt for the project will kick off the project to expand 12.5-mile stretch of Hwy. 14 from two lanes to four lanes. This project will expand Hwy. 14 from two lanes to four lanes between Owatonna and Dodge Center, to complete a continuous four-lane roadway between Interstate 35 and Rochester. The project is intended to improve the capacity, safety, travel times and access to Rochester and Owatonna, as well as the I-35 corridor.
Shafer Contracting of Shafer, Minn., was awarded the construction contract for the Hwy 14 expansion project.
The bids were opened Aug. 21 and were then reviewed and certified. The contract award for Shafer’s $107,997,119 bid allows the contractor’s team to begin moving ahead on the project. MnDOT is using design- build, a contracting process that brings designers and contractors together early in the detail design portion of a project. MnDOT uses the flexibility design-build offers to maximize the value received per dollar, utilize innovative approaches and deliver projects quickly.
Three teams submitted sealed bids. A MnDOT team scored the technical proposals and those scores were applied to the bids. The bids were: Shafer Contracting Co., Inc., $107,997,119.16; Mathiowetz Construction Co., $117,587,970.79; and MZH Constructors LLC, $132,367,024.00. The results are at MnDOT’s website at www.dot.state.mn.us/designbuild/hwy14/letting.html.
The first full construction season will begin in spring of 2020 and be completed by 2022.