By Mark W. Olson

They asked for comments, and comments they got.

By the Aug. 10 comment deadline, MnDOT’s mailbox was filled with about 700 missives regarding the proposed Minnesota River crossing. MnDOT official Diane Langenbach was busy processing the last 80 comments on Monday.

The giant bridge will ultimately connect new Highway 212 in Carver County with Highway 169 across the Minnesota River in Scott County. And of MnDOT’s handful of proposed crossings, all have proved controversial.

Some cut through low-income mobile home courts where many Hispanic residents live.

Others travel close to the historic Chaska and Carver downtowns

All of them go over environmentally valuable property.

“Trust me, I was reading them all weekend. It was a lot of comments,” Langenbach said. The comments were “all across the board. Where someone’s living dictates what their responses are. A lot of them were preferences of routes. Some of them were pointing out different concerns they had about various alternatives.”

The feedback on MnDOT’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) ranged from institutional analysis to postcards with a child’s crayon rendering, saying “Don’t take my home away.”

About half of the comments came via postcard from the recently mobilized mobile home parks.

Langenbach will now organize the comments by general themes for the final environmental impact statement, “so they’re all part of the public record,” she said.

Some local and county bodies also noted corrections that needed to be made in the environmental impact statement. So by the final environmental impact statement (FEIS), the report will be changed, “so we’re making decisions based on correct information,” she said.

The number of comments was comparable to the responses received during the controversial St. Croix River crossing project. “It’s interesting because that one is coming much sooner,” Langenbach said.

However, people seemed to understand that the river crossing project could come a lot faster than expected, Langenbach said. She noted that the Bloomington Ferry Bridge project was sped up with help from political coalitions.

Langenbach has been tackling most of the comments 20 at a time, before taking a needed mental break. “It’s a bit difficult when you get a few that are … not a lot of kind words for people.” However, she added, “Most have been important, constructive input.”

Overall, Langenbach was pleased with the number of comments. “These people are passionate about the community and care about the resource that could be potentially negatively impacted. They care about their neighborhood,” she said. “It’s a positive thing.”

“That’s what we’re after is public participation. We’re glad to see it.”