CentraCare Health To Begin Road Realignment Project [VIDEO]

ST. CLOUD -- Demolition is expected to begin on three St. Cloud homes later this month, as part of a road reconstruction project by the St. Cloud Hospital.

CentraCare Health plans to reconstruct13th Street North, to realign the street to provide direct access into their south driveway of the emergency room.

Maintenance Coordinator Scott Gray says the main reason for the project is to address safety concerns at the intersection.

"People have a hard time trying to figure out where to stop and others run the stop sign because they don't see it."

Tearing down the homes, located in the 1200 block of sixth and seventh avenue, and the road project will cost CentraCare roughly $750,000.

Gray says they partnered with Central Minnesota Habitat for Humanity, to clean out the houses to take and reuse items to sell at their ReStore facility.

"There were people in the neighborhood aware the houses were coming down and asked about doing that. Once we contacted Habitat they were more than willing to take a look to see what they could reuse."

Gray adds along with the road realignment, the project will also add more green space around the property.

"What we will end up with is two really nice boulevards on both sides. We will have a lot of landscaping, trees and lighting along the space."

Demolition on the homes should be completed by the end of the July, with the new road completed by the end of August.