Duluth council weighs contracts for lead line replacement, street fixes, parks

Endion homes are first in line for the water work, with a contract calling for 110 lead or galvanized iron service lines to be replaced and four small-diameter HDPE water main extensions added where shared lead services run through the block. The project is set to begin May 4, 2026, with substantial completion targeted for Nov. 11 and final completion by June 11, 2027.

The bid opening for Endion 1 was pushed from April 9 to April 23 after the city found errors in the posted plan set. That delay came as Duluth City Council prepared to weigh a broader round of contracts that would touch drinking water, streets and parks across the city, from the Endion neighborhood to Lincoln Park, Goat Hill and Norton Park.

The lead-line work is part of a much larger cleanup of Duluth’s water system. The Minnesota Department of Health says the city has about 31,000 water services, including 6,800 identified lead services and another 5,500 of unknown composition, with more than 10,000 total lead-related services expected once the unknowns are fully investigated. Duluth had already reached its 500th lead service replacement when state officials visited in September 2024, and Minnesota awarded $62,796,725 in loans and grants for the city’s lead-line program in 2025.

Street work is also moving ahead in neighborhoods where daily driving and access will be affected. The Lincoln Park/Goat Hill package covers 4.12 miles of resurfacing, including mill-and-overlay and full-depth reclamation, plus curb and gutter, sidewalk, pedestrian ramp, driveway and storm sewer work. Another package covers pavement, curbs and storm drainage on 12 streets in Gary New Duluth, Duluth Heights, Chester Park and around the University of Minnesota Duluth. Residents were notified in a Feb. 26 engineering letter that the city planned one in-person informational session and one virtual session for the 2026 street preservation program.

At Norton Park, the city has already put a plan through community review that would replace the removed building with a new picnic pavilion, replace the playground, fix drainage at the multi-use field, reset park amenities, add an accessible portable restroom and build new access routes. Duluth secured a $350,000 Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Outdoor Recreation grant for the project, and construction is expected later in 2026.

All of it sits inside a heavy capital program. Duluth’s 2026 plan totals about $210.997 million, including $102.036 million for utility projects and $9.2 million from the local 0.5% sales tax dedicated to street improvements, a spending map that shows which blocks get fixed first and which neighborhoods live with the disruption.