MnDOT restarts in stages following govt. shutdown

Published 2:36 pm Thursday, July 21, 2011

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Transportation began restarting its operations Thursday following a government shutdown of nearly three weeks.

MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel says some services will be up and running fairly quickly, including MnPASS, traffic cameras and freeway incident response trucks. But, others will take longer to bring back on line.

MnDOT employees began returning to work at 7 a.m. Sorel says crews will be inspecting rest areas and cleaning up storm debris. He says most rest areas should be open by Saturday.

Sorel says district construction management offices around the state will be in touch with contractors to get construction projects restarted and try to make up for lost time.