The children’s playground at Memorial Park (west of the Fairmont) has now been reinstalled, after being displaced this summer for road construction.

The main Moorhead Fire Station has been remodeled so that equipment exits from the north side. Here, a retaining wall cuts off the former fire engine access doors.

The portion of First Avenue west of the 11th Street underpass has been reconstructed.

Ames Construction workers drive a piling deep into the ground to support retaining walls on the 11th Street underpass. (Photos/MNDoT.)

Nancy Edmonds Hanson

After six months of clearing, digging, pounding and paving, the Minnesota Department of Transportation is getting ready to expand construction on the 11th Street underpass in 2025.
First Avenue North will be closed until mid-2025 as Ames Construction completes the work that has kept it closed this year. Come June, Main Avenue will also be blocked from 10th to 12th Streets in preparation of similar work on the underpass’s southern margin. All east-west travel downtown will be shunted to Center Avenue for the summer.
Project engineer Aundie Curtiss of MNDoT notes that much progress has been made in the eight months since construction began in March. Ground has been cleared; excavation has begun; the first of 10 pilings have been sunk for retaining walls; and a lift station has been installed to keep the vehicle roadway dry. The Memorial Park playground at Seventh Street has also been reinstalled. Meanwhile, the city has realigned and remodeled the main fire station on First Avenue to allow fire engines to exit to the north.
Burlington Northern Railway has completed the temporary shoo-fly tracks to divert its trains – around 70 per day – away from the construction area.
Similar work is planned south of Center Avenue next summer. A short stretch of Main Avenue from 10th to 12th Streets will be closed after school is out in June. “We expect to open it back up by the time school starts in late August,” Aundie says. :A lot of school bus routes are affected.”
The project engineer says that the project so far has encountered few surprises. “There’s been some contaminated soils and groundwater, but we anticipated that, knowing the history of what had been on the ground above it.”
Businesses along that stretch of Main Avenue – including Hornbacher’s supermarket – will continue to have access throughout this phase. “Hornbacher’s will lose a few parking spaces around its sign, but the rest will be retained,” she says. “A lot of the businesses around there already have multiple access points. We will make sure customer will always be able to get there, one way or the other.”
MNDoT plans to resume public construction update meetings in February. In the meantime, its hotline remains available, along with contact options, at www.dot.state.mn.us/d4/projects/moorhead11thstunderpass/contacts.html