Freeborn County Commissioners indicated Tuesday during a workshop that they would like to see what direction Albert Lea city councilors will take regarding the Bridge Avenue corridor project before they make their own decision about it.

Bridge Avenue, also known as Freeborn County Road 22, faces options of whether to stay a two-lane road, expand to a three-lane road or expand to a four-lane road when the utilities underneath the road have to be replaced. It’s a project that recently resurfaced after city and county staff leaders asked the elected bodies in both entities for some direction as to whether to apply for federal funding for it. That funding deadline is in February.

In discussion of the project Tuesday, commissioners talked about some of the issues brought up at a public hearing last week about the project, where an overwhelming majority of people in attendance vocalized that they were opposed to any kind of major expansion of the street.

Commissioner Chris Shoff said he received an e-mail from a person in favor of some redesign of Bridge Avenue.

“I did hear after that there were a lot of people in the room who were in favor who did not speak because of the tone of the meeting or because of their position, their job,” Shoff said.

He asked if the county has any inclination of what the city’s going to do or if the city is going to decide something in the near future.

Freeborn County Engineer Sue Miller said from her understanding the city is going to set a timeline for making a decision, though she doesn’t know what that timeline will entail.

The longer the project waits without a decision being made, however, the longer there are people on the corridor who feel like “we are holding them hostage so to speak,” Miller said.

She talked a little about what portions of the project would be city costs and what portions would be county costs.

“The main point is overall that the corridor is going to cost us as a community $10 million just to leave it as is,” she said.

Until any direction is given, however, she or City Engineer Steve Jahnke cannot apply for any federal funding, she said. She noted she does not think the city and county will be in a position to apply for federal funding for the Bridge Avenue project this year because no position has yet been set.

Commissioner Dan Belshan questioned what Miller thought of the recent public meeting and some of the issues that were raised there. He asked if she thought some of the public’s suggestions would work.

Miller said it is her professional recommendation to still go along with the option for a four-lane road, as that concept “allows the road to be built once and to serve the community for 80 to 100 years.”

“That would be in the long-term best interest of the taxpayers,” she said.

The engineer said in the past entities have decided to go with smaller fixes for a bigger problem and have ended up creating other problems.

“We don’t want to invest any more money where it’s going to create problems somewhere else,” Miller said. “The key to this corridor working well and working right is doing what’s right for the overall plan.”

Shoff said for him that means establishing where the road should be in 25 to 50 years from now, so that the city and county will know how to deal with the smaller projects in accordance to the greater plan.

Belshan questioned the traffic-count estimations for the road in the future and said just because a consultant says something doesn’t mean it’s true.

Miller responded that while it’s true that in the next 20 years the road may not hit those traffic counts, she asked the commissioners to think what would that room full of people in the recent public meeting be saying in the year 2050.

“You need to listen to the voices we heard last Thursday night, but you’re also faced with what elected officials down the road and people down the road are going to say of what you did,” she said.

Of the 21 people who spoke up at the public meeting, 17 people established one problem that needed to be fixed, she said.

“We can do a two-lane modified and just fix an intersection and future generations might question our lake of foresight of what’s needed,” Miller said.

The road is failing and it is laden with utility cuts and patches from over the years, she said. If the utilities are going to be dug up and replaced the road needs to be fixed right the first time.

Shoff said the county needs to set the direction of where it’s going with the road, but he thinks the city needs to do that first before the commissioners act on anything.

Miller said the city and county are partners in this project and they need to work together.

Freeborn County Administrator John Kluever asked the commissioners if there’s any information they need or questions that have to be answered before they make their decision. He asked the commissioners if they wanted to take any action about the issue at an upcoming board meeting.

None of the commissioners spoke up.