On Monday, commuters got the first piece of good news since the Minnesota River rose high enough to block roads last month.

After being closed for 19 days, the Carver County 11/Scott County 9 Minnesota River crossing near Jordan reopened to traffic at 3:30 p.m.

Naturally, drivers couldn’t help but wonder if other crossings would follow, allowing them to resume their regular routes across the river. Right now, both the Highway 41 and Highway 101 crossings remain blocked off to traffic. Earlier this week, crews from the Minnesota Department of Transportation assessed damage to Highway 41, south of the river. According to a press release issued by MnDOT Tuesday afternoon, soil boring tests on the road confirmed that it has “stabilized enough to carry heavy equipment, and repair work can begin.”

So when might Highway 41 reopen? MnDOT gave an April 13 estimate. No such date has been given for when Highway 101 might reopen.

April 13 can’t come soon enough for Mike Webb. Since Highway 41 closed March 19, he has seen business at his Dunn Bros Coffee on the corner of Highway 41 and Second Street drop dramatically. He’s even reduced his hours of operation to reflect the loss of business.

“We’re closing at 4 [p.m.] because business is down about 60 percent since the second day the bridge closed,” he wrote in an e-mail. “I have cut the hours of staffing and will be only having an opener till 11:30 [a.m.] and I will be manning the shop the remainder of the time.”

Highway 41 will need some work before it can handle traffic, though. Crews will be busy patching the road and replacing parts of the shoulder that washed away, leaving drop-offs of up to a foot in places. A MnDOT spokesperson stated in an e-mail that he understood crews would be working 12 hour days until the road was ready to be reopened.

At Athletic Park, Chaska’s Public Works employees began cleanup efforts Wednesday from flood waters that had previously inundated the park.

“We had seven feet of water there,” said Chaska Public Works Superintendent Tim Wiebe. “There was six feet of water on top of the field.”

Over the weekend, the water receded enough to give city employees access to the grandstand. Early in the week, they began assessing what they would need to do to get the park cleaned up. In coming days, crews will be hosing off river silt, painting and consulting with an electrician.

Wiebe said the good news was that the grass on the field was greening up nicely.

“That’s a good sign,” he said. When the flood waters struck, Wiebe didn’t know whether or not they would be forced to re-seed the field and move games elsewhere until the field was ready for action.

“This is not a re-seeding,” he said happily, Tuesday afternoon.

As of Tuesday, the Minnesota River at Chaska was down to 23.37 feet, 5.37 feet above flood stage. Wiebe said it was receding on average a half foot a day.

-Mollee Francisco, staff writer