More Heavy Lifting Gets Done

Following up on the recent Block Head Gathering, NDDC E. R. Team members started work on minimizing the adverse impacts of Highway 3 Reconstruction on our community’s economic vitality.

Encouraged by Northfield’s Public Works Director Heidi Hamilton’s offer to take the NDDC’s recommendations for signage to MNDOT, NDDC Community Advisor Victor Summa and Executive Director Ross Currier spent Saturday morning driving around in the rain, visualizing a visitor coming to Northfield, confronting the highway work and still figuring out how to buy a hamburger from the Quarterback Club.

Our innovative thinking included putting signs warning about the construction zone a quarter of a mile before the “road closed” signs are located to clue people in to the upcoming detour signs, suggesting that the detour signs be City of Northfield signs instead of the ubiquitous orange construction signs to make them more distinctive, and giving more detailed information on access to businesses than is typical. Here’s Victor outlining the concept to the rest of the E. R. Team.

We’ll follow up with Heidi on the success of her efforts with MNDOT. Then we’ll move onto the Library Plaza construction work planned for later this summer.

If you have some thoughts, please let us know.