Detour begins Monday on Highway 2 in Solway Township project

Drivers in western St. Louis County will lose a key through route on Highway 2 when MnDOT begins a $5.5 million resurfacing project between Midway Road and Highway 194, forcing traffic onto a detour that will last for most of the summer.

The closure begins Monday, June 1, and MnDOT says through traffic will be directed to Highway 194 and Midway Road while work continues on 8.35 miles of roadway in Solway Township. Local access for residents and businesses will remain open through connecting side roads, but anyone using the corridor for daily commutes, school travel, errands or business deliveries will have to plan for a slower trip.

MnDOT says the project is designed to do more than lay new pavement. Along with resurfacing, the work includes traffic signal maintenance at Midway Road and several new turn lanes intended to improve safety at intersections. The agency’s project page says the disruption is expected to run through mid-September, making this one of the larger seasonal changes for drivers in the area this year.

The department laid out the plan before construction started. MnDOT held an information meeting April 21 at 5 p.m. at Solway Town Hall in Cloquet and said presentation materials would be posted online afterward. The project page also includes a work zone map and traffic impact details, giving residents and businesses advance notice of how the detour will function once the closure starts.

For St. Louis County, the project fits the narrow construction window that governs major road work in northern Minnesota. The county says road and bridge projects are funded through local tax levies, state aid, federal highway funds and transportation sales tax revenue, a mix that helps pay for summer construction seasons like this one.

Highway 2 has also seen detours in the Duluth-area corridor before, a reminder that major repairs on this route are often handled with full traffic rerouting rather than keeping the road open during construction. For now, the immediate change is clear: anyone heading through Solway Township will need to take Highway 194 and Midway Road until MnDOT finishes the work later this fall.