 While for those who travel on Highway 371 between Pequot Lakes and Niswa, the end of construction is getting closer. The large-scale project will be completed sometime in the next few months. Sarah Winkelman spoke with the project manager and has the details. Orange barrels and construction crews have been a common sight for motorists traveling on a nine-mile stretch of Highway 371 between Pequot Lakes and Niswa. One phase of the project in Pequot Lakes has been completed and is currently in use. We went from a two-lane to a four-lane highway with the realignment around Pequot so that has a new interchange at County Road 11 so much safer access in and out of downtown Pequot so it should see much safer conditions for the traveling public. We'll head-to-head traffic on the highway anymore in this stretch. For now, both directions of traffic are traveling on what will become the two northbound lanes. Mindott is hoping to give travelers a new experience starting in late September by opening one lane heading southbound and by having all four lanes open by early October. There was two main drivers for the project one congestion but that leads to safety issues on a highway so it was safety was the main driving factor in the conversion to the four lane. This project is much larger than normal for the area so the team took a different approach in the planning process. It was interesting this project was actually a design build project so it's not a normal process so the department actually hired a company the main prime contractor Mathwitz and they actually had a designer designing the road as they built it so it's a little different than normal normally we know what it's finally going to look like when we start here it was kind of designed as they went. At this stage the project is just over 90 percent complete. It's gone extremely well with the contractor and working with them on the project we've had I mean obviously there's traffic impacts with the staging and doing a project under traffic as we have been but it's been relatively safe there's been some accidents which happened but for the most part it's been safe and a good project to work on. As more lanes open, MnDOT wants to remind drivers that crews will still be out cleaning up. Reporting in Niswa, Sarah Winkleman, Lakeland News. The project is on track to finish in time but weather will be the deciding factor. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.