We've got our highway back!

Anyone traveling through the St. Peter area has known how much of a pain in the derriere it has been the past five months with the Highway 169/Minnesota Avenue reconstruction project going on throughout the downtown area and beyond.

It's like the construction workers are open heart surgeons and they've performed an angioplasty on the city's main artery and for awhile there it seemed like the downtown at times was on life support. Now, after a wonderfully planned and brilliantly executed Holiday Celebration on Saturday, the road opened up for good by Monday afternoon.

As I and my fellow colleagues at work were standing on the Highway anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first vehicles (they opened the north bound lanes first), I half expected a John Phillip Sousa-inspired marching band to lead the parade or at least an Indy 500 pace car to precede the inaugural batch of vehicle to test out the new concrete surface.

Low and behold, we had one straggler make his way off the side street and onto the road before the main event and you could tell he was at least somewhat local as he seemed confused by this new route. Once he cleared through we could see off in the distance a rising cloud of dust as the first wave came rolling along.

Then, just as quickly as they came and they were gone returning the main thoroughfare to its rightful place as a bustling roadway as it was prior to the July 4th holiday. It took a few minutes for the downtown people to let out a "hooray!" and then get back to the business at hand ... trying to recover from the five-month stretch of descent on the ol' revenue charts.

Nonetheless, we're now the proud owners of a brand, spanking new street and like any new parents, we're more than happy to show it off and welcome you back to the new and improved 169!