More information will soon be revealed about a construction project along a Dakota County highway corridor that has been years in the making.

Hastings residents are invited to a public meeting Tuesday evening to learn about the reconstruction of U.S. 61 between just north of Third Street and just south of 36th Street, according to a news release from the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

A stretch of U.S. Highway 61 between just north of Third Street and just south of 36th Street is slated for reconstruction. Hastings residents are invited to a public meeting on Nov. 18, 2025 to learn about the project. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation)

The meeting, which begins at 5 p.m. at Hastings City Hall at 101 Fourth St. E., will give residents an opportunity to learn more about the project, view displays and speak with staff.

A two-year study of the U.S. 61 corridor, which concluded in June 2024, identified safety improvements for all modes of travel, alternatives for primary intersections and options to consolidate private driveways and public roads, according to the project webpage.

As a result, the project will see the construction of new, full-size roundabouts at Minnesota 316 and 36th Street, improvements to safety and traffic flow, new concrete sidewalks and pedestrian ramps and a new traffic signal at the intersection of U.S. 61 and 18th Street.

The project will cost an estimated $30 million to $40 million, according to the project team, with funds coming from the Metropolitan Council’s Regional Solicitation and MnDOT’s Transportation Economic Development program.

The historic Todd Field wall, which runs adjacent to U.S. 61 at Hastings High School’s McNamara Stadium at Todd Field, is also slated for replacement due to significant structural and geotechnical issues including visible cracking and a lack of drainage. The current wall also fails to meet modern crash safety standards, according to the project team.

The new wall will be built vertically, replacing the existing 45-degree slope, which the project team said will allow for a standard southbound right-turn lane and upgraded sidewalks that meet ADA requirements.

Construction is tentatively planned to run from fall 2027 through spring 2029, with the majority of work completed in 2028.

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As his name blared over the loud speakers on Sunday afternoon at U.S. Bank Stadium, Harrison Smith slowly walked into sight before sprinting onto the field to a massive ovation from the Vikings’ home crowd.

It’s fitting that Smith was the last player out of the tunnel ahead of his 200th game in the NFL. Originally selected in the first round of the 2012 draft out of Notre Dame, the 36-year-old safety has spent his whole career with the Vikings.

“It’s something that I didn’t set out to think I’d do,” Smith said. “To be in a small group of guys that have done it with the Vikings is pretty special.”

The others players in franchise history with at least 200 games include Jim Marshall (270), Mick Tingelhoff (240), Fred Cox (210), Carl Eller (209) and Scott Studwell (201).

Asked about the incredible feat last week in the lead up to the game between the Vikings and the Chicago Bears, Kevin O’Connell showered Smith with praise, saying he’s among his favorite players he has ever coached.

“He’s such a special person,” O’Connell said. “If they were all like Harrison Smith, we would be very fortunate.”

The stats speak for themselves as Smith has recorded 1,157 tackles, 20 1/2 sacks, 37 interceptions, and 13 forced fumbles in his career. He has posted those numers while serving as the lifeblood of the defense, snap in and snap out, for well over a decade.

What is the secret to his longevity?

“I do a pretty good job taking care of my body,” Smith said. “I’m pretty conscious of what I do and what I don’t do.”

Asked about Smith playing as long as he has the NFL, Josh Metellus shook his head in disbelief, adding that he talked about the number with some of his teammates.

“We haven’t even played half the games he’s played,” Metellus said with a laugh. “To be on the field with a guy with that kind of experience is special. I’m going to shout him out every chance I get. That’s a special guy.”

As the Vikings prepared for kickoff against the Bears, Smith got to experience another cool wrinkle, as his wife Madison, his daughter Eleanor and son Pierce sounded the Gjallarhorn and led the Skol Chant pregame.

“That’s something special that will be pretty cool to look back on for a long time,” Smith said. “My wife was pretty nervous. It looked like she did a good job. My kids did as well.”

As he talked to reporters after the game, Smith tried his best to put everything in perceptive, even if he admitted that the Vikings suffering a 19-17 loss to the Bears as time expired put a damper on the moment.

“It’s hard not to think about the game,” Smith said. “That’s why I’m here.”

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For most of the Vikings’ 19-17 loss to Chicago on Sunday, J.J. McCarthy looked like a young quarterback whose confidence had cratered, out of sorts since the opening whistle.

On the Vikings’ first few drives, McCarthy overthrew Jordan Addison and threw behind Justin Jefferson on plays that would have moved the sticks. He later threw a pair of first-half interceptions, his seventh and eighth of the season, the first on an underthrown pass under duress that the Bears turned into three points.

Making his fifth NFL start on Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium, McCarthy looked tight, indecisive, crushed by expectations. Unready.

Whatever the Vikings expected McCarthy to be in his first NFL season, it was too much for a 22-year-old who missed his entire rookie season because of a knee injury. More than halfway through the season, the Vikings are 4-6 and last in the NFC North, and frankly getting worse.

Nearly everyone who cared could see this coming. Why Vikings management didn’t is a mystery.

Sometimes you can know too much.

General manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah and head coach Kevin O’Connell look at McCarthy and see a 6-foot-3, 220-pound quarterback with a strong arm and the mental acuity and drive to absorb the intricacies of an NFL offense. They see a kid who has everything he needs to succeed.

But McCarthy is barely completing 50 percent of his passes and has more interceptions (8) than touchdown passes (6). Against the Bears, he was 16 for 32 for 150 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions.

Asked afterward why he thinks his accuracy has been so low, McCarthey said, “I think it’s just growing.”

Yes. Absolutely. No doubt.

Who knows what plans are made in the back rooms of team headquarters in Eagan? Who knows what Kwesi, KOC and the Wilfs tell each other in full candor? One would assume that a team that went out and spent more than $300 million on free agents last spring expected to win this season, even with a quarterback playing his first NFL season.

It was easy to criticize that approach before the season started, and it’s even easier now. But one can’t make that argument without acknowledging that NFL quarterbacks require a long landing strip, that it’s a remarkably difficult job and rarely clicks in the first season.

McCarthy absorbed his first boos from fans at the Bank on Sunday, just one indication that this season is becoming a referendum on J.J. McCarthy, at least outside of the bunker. After the game, O’Connell was asked how bad his quarterback would have to play before he would replace him.

“I’m not gonna get into that,” the coach said.

Expecting a playoff season was too much to put on McCarthy’s shoulders. Everyone knows it now. It was unrealistic and unfair, and it would be a mistake to give the young quarterback just this one season to prove himself.

It’s too early to start turning the page on McCarthy.

For one thing, it would be a complete waste of this season. For another, NFL teams are generally too quick to pull the plug on young quarterbacks, as we have learned by watching Sam Darnold excel here and in Seattle.

In some ways, handing McCarthy has been a disaster, but he also has on occasion shown us why Minnesota has been so high on him, as he did while going 5 for 5 for 55 yards and a touchdown pass on what really should have been a game-winning drive after the two-minute warning had sounded.

“There is a huge growth and learning opportunity in front of us,” O’Connell said. “That doesn’t make this any easier, but it’s the truth.”

If O’Connell and Adofo-Mensah truly believed what they have been telling us about McCarthy, they need to stick with him. They threw him out there this season and asked him to either be great, or make all make all his mistakes in front of 70,000 people on Sundays.

They owe it to him to not give up.

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The most obvious benefit of having solid goaltending is it relieves your team’s goal-scorers from having to carry too much weight.

Simple math tells you that when you give up three goals, you need to score four to win. And for a Minnesota Wild team for whom the offense has not been clicking – even when starting November on a 5-1-1 streak – that’s likely too much weight to expect them to carry.

So with Jesper Wallstedt breaking out of his backup role and allowing no goals – not one – in his previous two starts, the trickle-down effect it has on the entire team’s confidence can be seen on the faces inside the winning locker room.

“It feels good when you have him playing this well. It makes the group a lot [more] confident. I mean, he’s incredible right now,” Wild rookie defenseman Zeev Buium said following Wallstedt’s 28-save shutout of the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. “I don’t know how many goals we’ve let up in the last couple games, but it’s a few. It almost feels like we’re gonna shut out every team when we play them. That’s a good thing to have.”

For the record, entering Sunday night’s game with the Vegas Golden Knights, the Wild had surrendered a NHL-best four goals in their previous four contests, split between Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson.

Wild coach John Hynes joked following the Anaheim game that a goalie controversy caused by two men both playing well is the best problem a coach can have.

“You need strong goaltending to win, and we obviously have a good tandem,” Hynes said. “I think both guys are competing, and that’s what you want when you have two guys that can play and they compete for the net. That’s usually what drives a lot of things, is if you have competition.”

Strong goaltending also allows some teams to play a more free game, willing to take risks and make plays, secure in the knowledge that mistakes won’t automatically end up in their own net. The Wild took a pair of penalties late in a one-goal game versus Anaheim, then watched their penalty-killers – Wallstedt chief among them – negate the Ducks’ man-advantage and close out a win that was much-needed for team confidence.

The high-risk, high-reward play prompted one Wild player to express some mild concern, while praising Wallstedt.

“I think sometimes too much (confidence),” Minnesota penalty-killer Yakov Trenin said. “Giving up a lot of 2-on-1s, we need to settle down the confidence a little bit on that. A little too confident.”

In blanking the Flames and Ducks in his past two starts, Wallstedt became the first rookie goalie in Wild history with back-to-back shutouts.

Briefly

Wild veteran forward Vladimir Tarasenko missed a second consecutive game due to a lower body injury on Sunday.

“I would classify it as day to day right now with the information I have at this point,” Hynes said following the Anaheim game.

Tarasenko, acquired from Detroit over the summer, has two goals and eight assists in his first 18 games with the Wild.

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