Even with the rain early this week, construction has continued on Main Street. R.L. Larson’s two
construction crews finished the underground water, sewer, and storm sewer on Phase 1. Yesterday, one of
the crews shifted to Phase 2, the portion of Main Street from Fourth to Sixth Avenue West. The crew
started the sanitary sewer main replacement at Fourth Avenue and is working west. The second crew
finished excavating and installing conduit crossings at the intersection of Second Avenue East and will be
assisting with the replacement in Phase 2 now. NOTE: A minor shut down will be required to replace the
hydrant in front of the Emergency Services building during the week. Notification for the roughly four hour
shut-down will be provided to those affected by the limited water. R.L. Larson anticipates being done with
the main replacement within the next two weeks.
With the completion of the underground utilities on Phase 1, Ottertail Aggregate has started hauling Class 5
gravel for the road base. Currently, they are concentrating on the intersections through the first phase,
working from east to west, and will be moving to the remaining portions of Main Street over the next few
days. With approximately 1,000 tons of Class 5 per block, expect additional truck traffic.
Early next week, other subcontractors will be arriving in town to work in multiple areas of the project.
Parson’s Electric will be back on site installing additional conduits in the downtown area for irrigation and
lighting.
Knife Lake Concrete will also be arriving on site to begin work on the sidewalk east of Phase 1 that will
extend from Sixth Avenue East to Eleventh Avenue Southeast on the south side of Main Street. The plan is
to begin forming the improvements on Monday and pouring the concrete sidewalk throughout the
remainder of the week. Towards the end of next week, Knife Lake plans to begin constructing the new curb
and gutter in Phase 1. The curb and gutter will be the first noticeable component of the street
reconstruction, with sidewalk and pavement to follow. Because there are additional items that will be
installed within the sidewalk area, including irrigation, lights, trees, and various handholes for electrical
connections, the sidewalk construction will occur after the paving of the first four inches of bituminous
pavement on the roadway.
On Monday and throughout the course of the week, the City will be working with Arvig to replace natural
gas services to approximately ten properties in Phase 1. The services will be installed through a
combination of trenching and directional drilling to limit the impacts outside of Main Street.
2024 Main Street Project Update
Main Street, Second Avenue Northeast, and Seventh Avenue Southeast
With the early spring, we anticipate work to progress into additional phases over the next few weeks west
of downtown (Sixth Avenue West to County 34/51). More information will be provided as the phases
progress. There is the potential for a lull in construction during the middle of summer before the final
phase (1st Avenue to 4th Avenue West) which is unable to start until after the early part of August. For
specific information and maps regarding the phasing, please see the Chamber’s website, with a link located
at the end of this update.
If you have any questions, or want additional information on the project, the Perham Chamber of
Commerce has created a webpage dedicated to the project, which can be accessed at this link
(https://www.perham.com/2024msrp/). For more specific questions, feel free to contact the City Engineer,
Jade Berube, via email at jade.berube@apexenggroup.com, or City Manager, Jonathan Smith at
jsmith@cityofperham.com.
