New Tomahawk Road to close for Stony River bridge rehab this summer
Through traffic on New Tomahawk Road will be detoured for Stony River bridge rehab, while residents on both sides keep local access through Sept. 19.
Lake County will close New Tomahawk Road, County Road 34, to through traffic between Minnesota Highway 1 and Babbitt starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, July 7, while crews rehabilitate the bridge over the Stony River. The county’s anticipated reopening date is Sept. 19, putting the crossing out of service for most of the summer and into early fall.
The project is more than a surface repair. Work will include a new bridge deck and railing, along with repairs to the bridge’s substructure units, and the county says the bridge will be out entirely during construction, with no traffic allowed to cross. That means drivers who normally use the direct route between Highway 1 and Babbitt will have to shift to the posted detour.
Lake County plans to route traffic onto Minnesota Highway 1 and St. Louis County Roads 20 and 121. The closure will leave the road open to residents and local traffic on either side of the bridge, preserving access to homes and properties near the work zone even as the through route is cut off. For rural drivers, that distinction matters: the closure blocks the crossing itself, not every local trip on New Tomahawk Road.
The Stony River project lands amid a crowded stretch of road work on Lake County’s public notice page. The same June 26 notice listing the New Tomahawk Road shutdown also included a July 6 to July 13 closure on 15th Street, County Road 27, for a CN rail-crossing upgrade, along with a July 6 to July 10 closure on Lax Lake Road, County State Aid Highway 4, tied to a permitted utility replacement project by Cliffs Northshore Mining. Together, the notices point to multiple transportation disruptions moving through the county at once.
Lake County’s highway staff directory lists Chelsey Ojard, Trish Liimatta, John Schlangen and Jason DiPiazza on the department contact page, giving residents named county contacts as they track the schedule, detour changes or any slip in the timeline. If the bridge job runs long, the practical cost will be borne by the people who use this corridor every day to reach work, homes and nearby roads north of the Stony River.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
