HASTINGS, Minn. — Hastings residents packed council chambers for the first informational meeting about the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (MnDOT) Highway 61 project.

MnDOT said the project will improve safety, traffic flow, and accessibility.

The projected $30 - $40 million project will reconstruct Hwy 61 north of 3rd Street to south of 36th Street.

“There’s a lot of vehicle traffic, truck traffic, businesses, everyone in this corridor that we’re trying to accommodate,” said MnDOT Hwy 61 Project Manager Robert Jones.

Jones said this project is a complete reconstruction.

“It’s needed because the sub-structure of the road right now is starting to fail, and the roadway is starting to fail. It met its lifetime, and a lot of the signal systems and intersections need to be upgra

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