Information about a roundabout intersection planned for construction next summer at State Highway 15 and County Road 12 (North High Drive) in Hutchinson will be available at an open house Wednesday, Dec. 12.

Representatives from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, McLeod County and the city of Hutchinson will be available to answer individual questions about the project. The event is from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Hutchinson Event Center, 1005 Highway 15 S., in the Plaza 15 Center.

Hutchinson’s first roundabout opened June 2006 at the intersection of Fifth
Avenue Northwest/Golf Course Road and the new Montana Street. The state expects to begin construction by mid-July with the work taking two or three months, City Engineer Kent Exner told the City Council on Tuesday.

The proposed detour (for southbound traffic on Highway 15) is Meeker County 18, west to Meeker County Road 12, south to School Road in Hutchinson, south to State Highway 7 at Burger King, west back to Highway 15 (Main Street).

(Note: A short video of a Highway 19 intersection roundabout in Scott County can be seen on the Leader Web site. If you go to the row of selections in the gray navigation bar near the top of our page, you should see "Roundabout" as an option right between "Discover Downtown" and "Litchfield News." It is only about 30 seconds long, but shows several vehicles, including a school bus, passing through the intersection from all four directions.)

(Terry Davis is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at davis@hutchinsonleader.com [2].)