A two-year study of Highway 14 through the Mankato river valley has reached its public-input phase, and it sketches a decade of work. The Mankato–North Mankato Area Planning Organization, working with MnDOT and Blue Earth and Nicollet counties, is studying the corridor from Blue Earth County Road 12 on Mankato’s east side to the Lookout Drive interchange in North Mankato. The $800,000 study held its first open house Thursday and is taking comments online through August 7. The scope is substantial. Planners point to bridge replacements anticipated in the 2030s, a bike-trail bridge over the Minnesota River, a redesign of the Highway 169 and Highway 14 interchange with as many as 10 options under review, and roundabouts at the ramp connections with Highway 22, Victory Drive, Highway 169, and Lor Ray Drive. The study runs through December 2027 and will name a preferred set of improvements.
Sources: KEYC, July 30; Mankato Free Press; MnDOT District 7
BIZ A large engineering and construction firm is expanding its Minnesota presence in Duluth. Burns & McDonnell, a 100% employee-owned engineering and construction firm, has relocated its Duluth office to larger space at 11 East Superior Street, about 3,700 square feet with 24 workstations, four conference rooms, and room to add staff. The office serves the Twin Ports, the Iron Range, the Arrowhead region, and the broader Upper Midwest, handling planning, design, permitting, and construction on water, bridge, and other critical infrastructure. Gene Sieve, who leads the firm’s Upper Midwest region, said the larger space gives its employee-owners “more room to collaborate, grow.”
Source: Burns & McDonnell, July 1
FUNDING A federal transit-grant freeze is stranding billions, and a major Twin Cities project is in the queue. Since the start of the current administration, the Federal Transit Administration has not signed a single new Capital Investment Grant, the program that funds major transit expansions, and more than $7 billion that Congress designated has gone unobligated, the New York Times reports. About 46 projects sit in the pipeline, including the METRO Blue Line Extension in the Twin Cities, which is seeking roughly $753 million. The administration also tried to halt payments to projects in New York and Chicago before courts stepped in.
Source: The New York Times, July 27
WORKFORCE A proposed six-figure fee on international graduates could raise the cost of hiring engineering talent. The administration is weighing a $100,000 fee tied to Optional Practical Training, the program that lets international graduates work in the United States after they finish their degrees, according to Forbes. Officials have not decided whether students, universities, or employers would pay, and the Department of Homeland Security has not finalized anything, with broader changes to the program expected as early as this fall.
Source: Forbes, July 31
ENG A marquee Great Lakes tunnel cleared its state permits. Michigan’s environmental and natural-resources agencies approved construction permits on July 15 for Enbridge’s Great Lakes Tunnel, a roughly four-mile bored tunnel beneath the Straits of Mackinac that would enclose a replacement segment of the 73-year-old Line 5 oil and gas pipeline. Arup is the lead design engineer, and a joint venture of Barnard Construction and Civil and Building North America holds the construction contract. Cost estimates have climbed from about $500 million in 2018 to at least $750 to $800 million. A tunnel-boring machine would grind through limestone, rock, and shale at up to 40 feet a day and set a reinforced-concrete liner as it advances. Work has not started, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit is the remaining federal gate. The project sits next to Line 5’s Wisconsin reroute near the state border and echoes the recent Line 3 replacement, and it is a live case study in difficult-ground tunneling, geotechnical work, and Great Lakes and Army Corps environmental permitting.
Sources: Great Lakes Now, July 17; ENR
Build your bench: ACEC Minnesota’s Leadership Development Series for mid-career professionals runs September 2026 through April 2027 in a 24-person cohort, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November.
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.
