The 2018 flood exposed some major problems at Lake Shetek; this summer, Valhalla Road has been turned into a construction zone to address the issues and make the area safer
As much as the Lake Shetek area has blossomed over the years, visitors can still enjoy a sense of serenity and relaxation, as the welcoming waters of Shetek greet them, along with seasonal and more permanent residents as they make their way to Valhalla Island or Keeley Island.
Those typically common summer feelings are being disrupted this summer, but for a good reason.
Today, golf cart operators, walkers and bicyclists are sharing Valhalla Road with bulldozers, excavators and other large equipment that is being used to improve the overall condition of an area battered by the 2018 flood that shut down Keeley to motorized traffic over the 4th of July holiday.
“We seen such explosive growth there over the years … there are a lot more people wanting to use the lake, and there are businesses there, as we’re trying to make the road as safe as possible and upgrade it to today’s standard — it should last us for many, many years to come,” Murray County Highway Engineer Randy Groves said. “Over time, we’ve seen improvements on the sewer system around the lake, there will be rural water coming soon … things are looking up. It’ll be so nice; all the people out there have been very cooperative and are eager to see something finally getting done.”
A LARGE CRANE places a box culvert at the second dike on Lake Shetek on Friday morning. Photos / Per Peterson
The road/culvert project officially began in May with the removal of a number of trees in the area. Actual construction started about a week after the 4th of July holiday. However, if you ask Groves, the project really started in the early 2000s, when Murray County started to look at widening the road at the dike locations.
“We knew there was very little room for the mix of people; we tried to seek funding for that for many years,” Groves said. “Then, the flood hit in 2018 and we had other issues like how do we get people safely through there when the water is that high.”
A feasibility study and Environmental Assessment Worksheet were performed in 2020, and the County began talks with local legislators for some funding assistance.
“We knew we had issues out there, but they really surfaced quite prominently in 2018 after the flood — that’s when the legislators got interested in helping us.”
Working with legislators, Murray County received a $4.2 million grant in 2023. The County then began a partnership with Houston Engineering for the road design and incarnation of a shared-use plan along the road.
“Part of that is taking care of the pedestrians, and upgrading and widening the road itself, as well as raising all three dikes to an elevation that should keep it dry during flood events,” Groves said. “This is an opportunity to take care of the food mitigation part of it, but also to do what we’ve always wanted to do … the people out there are walking and biking — we wanted to get them off the road and make it more safe.”
Another safety concern was for anglers who fish off or near the dikes. In working to attain permits for the project, the DNR reached out and asked if there’s a chance it could help in finding some funding for fishing platforms — bump-out like areas on the path where people could fish from.
“That was kind of a nice buy-in from the State,” said Groves. “We said we’d love to have them as partners, so they’re contributing some money (about $300,000) toward this project as well.”
Groves said there will be one fishing platform on the first dike, and two on both the second and third dikes.
The current work is focused on replacing the bridge at the second dike with a box culvert. The box culvert installation at the second dike began on the south side of the road. Workers are doing one side at a time to allow an open flow of traffic during construction.
“On the south side, we do about threequarters of the box culvert, and then back-fill and switch traffic,” said Jeff Towne of Towne & Country Excavating. “Then, we finish laying pipe to the north. It’s a lot of staging. The box culverts are 12 feet across, 5 feet deep and 11 feet high and weight about 36,000 pounds apiece.
Groves said a box culvert will also be used on the third dike to, among other things, improve water quality in that area.
“By providing a box culvert, we feel there will be a little bit more wave action to help flush that bay out and hopefully improve water quality,” said Groves. “There’s no guarantee, but we’re not harming the lake in any way in trying to make it easier for water to pass through.”
The first dike will be the last one addressed, and that’s when widening of the shoulder for the shared-use path. The path will run from the first dike, all the way to the highway. The path will be in the ditch of the south side of Valhalla Road.
Towne said placing the box culverts is one of the quickest-moving processes of the project. The rock where they are placed is graded out before the culvert is placed — that part was completed Thursday. The culverts are held together with a 1-inch tie bar on each side and fabric is placed over each of the joints to seal them.
During construction, a retention barrier is being used on both sides of the road to keep sediment from flowing out into the lake.
“The contractor has done a really good job of adhering to all the erosion control practices we’ve got going out there,” Groves said.
Erosion control efforts also include fabric being placed under new rip-rap.
“They try to get it covered up as quickly as possible so there isn’t anymore erosion from the road bed,” Groves said.
The County has partnered with Duininck Inc. (road paving) Currie’s Sweetman Sand & Gravel, Hisken Construction (sidewalk, crosswalks, and curb and gutter) and Towne & Country Excavating.
“We had a pretty good plan to get started with, with putting sheeting in and holding the water back, and we had staging areas to work from,” said Jeff Towne. “Probably the biggest challenge is traffic, making it so people can get in and out safely.”
Traffic control is being done courtesy of two portable stop lights that are situated on either side of the work currently being done; the stoplights come from All State Traffic Control out of Cold Spring.
Crews are working six days a week, and the anticipated completion date is set for Oct. 17, weather permitting.
crane, are 12 feet wide, 5 feet deep, 11 feet tall and weight about 36,000 pounds. Photos / Per Peterson A NUMBER OF BOX CULVERTS were in place by Friday morning as part of the construction project along Valhalla Road at Lake Shetek. The culverts, put in place by a large
VALHALLA ROAD has been reduced to one-way traffic at the site of the multi-million dollar construction project. To control traffic, temporary stoplights were put to work, making them the only stoplights in Murray County, at least for the summer.
