The Minnesota Department of Transportation is removing the pavement from a 4-mile segment of Hwy. 74 in the southeastern corner of the state, and it's not putting it back.
Instead, crews are turning the stretch north of Elba in Winona County back into a gravel road and connecting it with the only other section of unpaved highway in the state.
Work began last week, and when the conversion is finished in about a month, all 11 miles of Hwy. 74 between Elba and Weaver in Wabasha County will be a gravel road.
"We don't have the budget to pave over it," said MnDOT spokesman Mike Dougherty.
And the agency doesn't have enough time to keep fixing the flood-prone road, which it already shuts down at least twice a year for maintenance, he said.
"It keeps breaking apart," Dougherty said. "We are constantly having to do maintenance."
The section of Hwy. 74 north of Elba originally was gravel until MnDOT applied an asphalt surface between 1999 and 2001. The 4-mile segment was redone after widespread floods damaged the road in 2007. Another light layer of sealed blacktop with a special bonding agent was applied about five years ago. But that didn't stop the surface from deteriorating and becoming riddled with potholes, Dougherty said.
Wear and tear was not the problem. The road running through wetlands along the Whitewater River sees only about 75 vehicles a day. Most travelers on Hwy. 74 are locals trying to reach Hwy. 61 or are nature lovers who come to watch and photograph birds and wildlife in the Whitewater Wildlife Management Area. The issue with Hwy. 74, Dougherty said, is the road base that sits atop soft topsoil and lots of water adjacent to the highway. The road base soaks up the water, and that exacerbates the crumbling of the sealed surface.
