Reconstruction Wrap-Up and Other Big Events to Happen in Duluth in October

Superior Street Reconstruction and Catalyst Content Festival overlap in October.

DULUTH, Minn.- Among several construction projects just getting started in the Northland, phase two of Superior Street reconstruction is getting ready to enter what should be its final month.

The project is supposed to wrap up between mid and late October, but with other big events happening downtown, there are some wishing it would finish up sooner rather than later.

Two of the Catalyst Content Festival’s main venues are located right in the middle of Superior Street reconstruction between 2nd and 3rd Avenue East.

Despite the festival’s overlap with construction in the second week of October, officials say everyone’s right where they should be going into the month.

“We have more concrete down on September 30th this year than we did on September 30th last year, so we’re actually in better shape than we were last year,” city of Duluth Sr. engineer Duncan Schwenshon said.

Since April, the city of Duluth has replaced a main water line and repaved almost half the area from 4th Avenue East to Lake Avenue, but what’s left in this phase of Superior Street reconstruction is causing a bit of a headache for Catalyst officials.

“We didn’t think that the entire project was going to be wrapped up, we had expected the block in front of the NorShore and Zeitgeist to be done,” Catalyst Content Festival executive director Philip Gilpin said.

Zeitgeist, the NorShore, Fitgers and Duluth’s old city hall are almost ready to host over a thousand TV and film professionals.

“The venues are the main reason that we chose Duluth. There’s so many amazing world class venues right here in the hart district that very few other towns have something similar to this,” Gilpin said.

All that’s left is tying up loose ends, like working with the city to get signs that will help people navigate the construction.

“I think the biggest concern is we just want to make sure that all the TV industry people coming to town feel welcome in Duluth, and we want to make sure that the construction doesn’t make them feel like they were un–thought of or forgotten about,” Gilpin said.

City officials say they never guaranteed they’d finish construction by the time of the festival.

“This festival came up after the project was awarded, so we weren’t aware of it and didn’t make specific accommodations to try and get the road opened earlier,” Schwenshon said.

Both parties say they’ve had open communication with each other in recent months and are doing what they can with the conditions they have.

“The road won’t be opened for the festival unfortunately, but it will be if they come back again next year,” Schwenson said.

If storms don’t get the best of the Northland this October like years past, Superior Street reconstruction should finish up by the end of the month.

That work will continue during the Catalyst Content Festival which runs October 9 to the 13.