"We have it in our minds that it's going to be a hassle, so we need to go someplace else." That's Brainerd Lakes Chamber of Commerce President Matt Kilian, talking about the mindset he's watching spread through this town faster than the construction itself. He said it at a business update meeting at the Northern Pacific Center in July, and he wasn't wrong. Drive past a line of orange cones on Washington Street once, and it's easy to assume the whole corridor is shut down for the next two years.
It isn't. As of this week, the stretch of Highway 210 you actually can't drive through runs about four blocks, from Kingwood Street to Fifth Avenue Northeast, past the Franklin Arts Center. Everything else along the corridor, from Baxter Drive to Pine Shores Road, is open, detoured, or waiting its turn in a schedule that runs into 2027. The gap between what's closed and what people believe is closed turns out to be the more interesting story, and it's the one worth understanding if you live anywhere near this stretch of town.
What's Actually Closed Between Now and Late October
The project moves in five distinct segments, and only one of them is torn up right now. The east segment, from 10th Avenue Northeast out to Pine Shores Road, got its work done earlier this year. The mall segment, between Fifth Avenue East and 10th Avenue Northeast, ran from mid-May through mid-August and wrapped up on schedule, with the two new roundabouts at Mill Avenue and Fifth Avenue Northeast finishing shortly after the Crow Wing County Fair.
That leaves the railyard segment: Kingwood Street to Fifth Avenue Northeast. Crews closed this stretch on August 10 and expect to have it reconstructed through late October. If you're trying to reach anything between the Franklin Arts Center and the mall area, this is the four-block window you're planning around, not the whole highway.
Eastbound traffic during this phase gets routed onto South Sixth Street, Oak Street, Highway 25 and 10th Avenue Northeast. Westbound traffic runs the same streets in reverse. Two temporary mini-roundabouts, marked with fresh paving and striping, sit on Oak Street at 13th Street Southeast and at South Eighth Street. Access from 10th Avenue Northeast stays open the entire time, which matters if you're headed to a business, the funeral home, or the school along that stretch. None of this requires a detour onto Highway 371 or a trip around Baxter. It's a few extra turns on streets most Brainerd residents already know.
The Roundabout That Quietly Reopened
Here's the part that's easy to miss if you're only half paying attention to construction updates: the new roundabout at C Street and Highway 25 opened to local access back in early August, right around the same overnight reconfiguration that closed the railyard segment. The other new roundabout, at Mill Avenue and County Highway 3, was scheduled to stay closed only through early September. By the time you're reading this, that closure window has likely already lifted, which means two of the four new intersections built this summer are already carrying local traffic instead of blocking it.
That's the pattern worth noticing. The construction zone isn't static. It's a moving four-to-six block window that closes, finishes, and reopens somewhere else, while the rest of the corridor goes back to normal behind it.
The Price Tag Depends on Which Source You Read
Even the basic facts about this project don't fully agree with each other. The Drive210 campaign describes it as a $46 million upgrade. The Brainerd Dispatch, reporting on the MnDOT open house in March, put the estimate at $51.3 million. Neither figure is wrong exactly, they're likely measuring the project at different stages of design and bidding, but the five-million-dollar gap is a decent reminder that even official numbers about your own street can shift depending on when and where you read them. If you want the current figure, MnDOT's project page is the source to check rather than any single press release.
Where the Real Detour Lives
The Chamber's response to all this has been to put a literal blue ox on the street. Babe, the mascot for the Drive210 campaign, shows up at business events and construction updates with one job: remind people that "Brainerd businesses are open, accessible, and worth the extra mile." Businesses hit hardest by construction can request a free appearance from Babe or a promotional video through the Chamber. Everyone else pays a small fee. It sounds whimsical until you hear Kilian's actual warning to the room in July: if the community talks itself into believing downtown is a mess, that belief becomes the thing that actually hurts the businesses along Washington Street, regardless of how many lanes are open. The Brainerd Lakes Area Economic Development Corporation is also running facade and signage grants through the city's Economic Development Authority for businesses in the construction zone, which is a more concrete form of the same bet: that the corridor is worth investing in now, not waiting out.
If you want the week-by-week version, the actual construction hotline runs through the contractor, RL Excavating, and questions about specific access points go through Drive210's business support page rather than the city switchboard.
What Comes Next, and Why It Won't Touch You This Fall
The project doesn't stop when the railyard segment finishes in late October. In 2027, work shifts west to the downtown segment, running from East River Road to Kingwood Street, and the bridge segment, covering Fourth Street Northwest across the Mississippi to East River Road. That phase brings a new signal at Fourth Street, an updated bridge deck, new water main and storm sewer work, and a concrete barrier planned between the roadway and the sidewalk. None of that touches this fall's routing. It's a different stretch of road, a different construction season, and worth knowing about now mostly so the 2027 cones don't catch anyone off guard the way this summer's did.
The Four Blocks Are the Whole Story
What's actually true right now, in September 2026, is narrower than what most people assume. Four blocks between Kingwood Street and Fifth Avenue Northeast are torn up through late October. Two roundabouts that were closed all summer have already reopened or are about to. The rest of Highway 210, from Baxter Drive to Pine Shores Road, is open, marked, and reachable by streets most people here already drive without thinking about it. The distance between that reality and the story people tell themselves about it is the actual detour, and it's the one costing local businesses more than any orange cone ever will.
If you're the kind of person who tracks how a town like this changes street by street, season by season, you're probably the kind of person who'd enjoy talking about where it's headed next. The Pederson Team spends a lot of time watching this area evolve, on the water and off it. Schedule a Lakeside Consultation whenever you're ready to talk about what any of it might mean for you.
