Perham Highway 8 construction plans outlined at open house

Perham’s Highway 8 corridor is headed for summer construction from Trunk Highway 10 to the east junction of County State Aid Highway 80, and Otter Tail County used an open house at Perham City Hall to give the first public look at the project. Because the route runs through one of the city’s main travel corridors, the work is expected to affect how customers reach nearby businesses, how deliveries move and how residents handle everyday trips across town.

The county held the meeting Monday, May 4, from 5 to 6:30 p.m., with a presentation at 5:30 p.m. planned to outline the contractor’s schedule and other project details. County event information described it as the Highway 8 resurfacing project in Perham and said the work includes ADA accessibility improvements, including pedestrian curb ramp reconstruction.

The Highway 8 job is part of Otter Tail County’s CSAH 8 Reconditioning Project, and county officials said the open house was the first public meeting announcing the planned 2026 project. The resurfacing contract was awarded to Anderson Brothers Construction of Brainerd for about $970,665. That puts the Perham work in the same category as other county road projects that can reshape traffic, parking and foot traffic while crews are active along a downtown corridor.

The county’s highway department says it is responsible for 1,067 miles of County State Aid Highways and County Highways, plus 74 bridges, a workload that helps explain why summer road construction is spread across the county and why dates can change as weather shifts. County road and bridge project information says timelines are approximate and weather-dependent, an important detail for anyone trying to plan around a resurfacing job that will unfold during the busiest travel months.

Perham has already seen the effects of major corridor work on County State Aid Highway 80, or Perham Main Street, which gives merchants and drivers a recent example of how a county project can alter access through town. With Highway 8 next in line, the county’s message was clear: the summer work is coming to one of Perham’s key routes, and the biggest questions now are when each phase will start, how access will be maintained and how long the disruption will last.