ENG MnDOT has moved a Highway 61 culvert replacement into its design-build procurement lane. The Little Manitou River crossing, SP 3808-44, now sits among projects currently in procurement. There is no RFQ or RFP yet, but interested firms should contact Peter Davich, MnDOT’s design-build program manager, to receive files and updates. The first meeting will be an RFQ kickoff this winter. The posted schedule runs an RFQ in January 2027, an RFP in the spring, a letting in summer 2027, and construction from fall 2027 through summer 2028. The existing structure is a 72-inch corrugated metal culvert that MnDOT says is in poor condition and no longer provides reliable capacity. Storm damage in 2024 buckled the inlet, and emergency repairs completed in 2025 stabilized the inlet and outlet without addressing the deterioration or the long-term hydraulic problem, leaving the culvert vulnerable to plugging and flooding. The site is remote and difficult to reach, with steep slopes and work running directly in the stream channel. There is currently no practical highway detour if the road were to fail. MnDOT also says design and construction oversight after letting will run through consultant contracts. Davich says more design-build projects follow next year, notably the Highway 19 reconstruction.
Sources: MnDOT, Hwy 61 Little Manitou Culvert; MnDOT design-build contacts
POLICY Two energy dockets reached the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission today. The commission met at 10 am in Saint Paul with Minnesota Power’s 2025-2039 integrated resource plan, docket E015/RP-25-127, flagged on the agenda as a complex disputed matter covering resource additions, compliance, the utility’s acquisition processes, and the timing of its next filing. The plan would stop burning coal at the Boswell Energy Center by 2035 and refuel Boswell Unit 3 to natural gas by 2030. It adds 750 megawatts of new gas by 2035, along with 400 megawatts of wind and 100 megawatts of storage. The second item, docket E999/CI-23-151, is the commission’s investigation into implementing the Renewable Energy Standard and the newly created Carbon Free Standard, including how the carbon-free off-ramps work. Both outcomes set the resource mix behind generation and transmission work across northeastern Minnesota.
Sources: Minnesota PUC, Sept. 10 agenda; Minnesota PUC, Minnesota Power IRP
BIZ Producer prices rose again in August. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this morning that final demand prices climbed 0.4 percent for the month and 5.4 percent over the year. The core measure, which strips out the most volatile categories, rose 0.3 percent for the month and 4.7 percent for the year. Diesel did most of the work on the goods side, up 24.1 percent in August and accounting for over a third of the monthly increase in final demand goods. Fuel is a direct line in heavy-civil bids and in the cost of running field crews.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Producer Price Index, Sept. 10
ENG MnDOT will show preferred design alternatives for a Highway 10 rebuild in Dilworth on Sept. 23. The project covers two miles of Highway 10 from 34th Street to 14th Street East. The scope pairs street reconstruction with drainage and utility improvements, sidewalk and trail upgrades, and intersection work, and construction is scheduled for 2032 and 2033. The meeting runs 5:30 to 7:30 pm at DGF Elementary School in Dilworth, with the formal presentation at the start. Staff will walk through the alternatives and the projected timeline.
Source: MnDOT, Sept. 9
POLICY Comments close Sept. 12 on putting utilities inside highway rights-of-way. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s request for information on America’s Great Corridors of Commerce, docket DOT-OST-2026-3269, closes Saturday. The Build America Bureau is asking what stands in the way of colocating transmission lines, fiber and rural broadband, water pipelines, and communications infrastructure inside existing highway and rail corridors, and how the corridor designation process should work. The department says it would designate up to five corridors a year if the program proceeds, and it is not yet accepting expressions of interest.
Source: Federal Register, Aug. 18
WORKFORCE ACEC put a number on the engineering talent gap this week. A Sept. 9 post from the national association marking National Workforce Development Month reports that 184,000 engineers retired or left the profession in 2022 while 166,000 new graduates came in behind them, a shortfall of 18,000 a year. ACEC’s Pipeline Project runs through the ACE Mentor Program of America, which reaches 14,000 students a year through 5,000 volunteers at 70 affiliates. It sends 1,000 alumni into the industry annually. Firms are asked to mentor students, host interns, fund scholarships, open job sites for visits, or help start a chapter where none exists.
Source: ACEC, Sept. 9
Metropolitan Council · ultrasonic rail testing for internal rail defects · due Oct. 13 · RFP
Preliminary entries for ACEC Minnesota’s 60th annual Engineering Excellence Awards are due Thursday, Oct. 8, with winning projects recognized at the Feb. 18, 2027 gala, 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.