Road Trip Day 2 thru 4 - MN

[rte66man]

Spent the next few days all over the Twin Cities area going to various family functions.  Random notes:

After 25 years of coming up here, you would think I would remember the maxim, " there are 2 seasons in MN, winter and Road Construction".  We tried to go west on 494 from Mall of America, but traffic was at a complete stop at 1 p.m.  Managed to cut over to 35W so we could drive the Crosstown Commons. They did a good job with that. I didn't realize it extended north almost to Lake.

Traffic was backed up on the ramp to westbound I94. Terrible merge there as well.  Once we passed thru the tunnel, it was smooth sailing to Rogers.

Really liked the ramp to funnel traffic directly onto northbound 101 from 94.  If they would remove that last traffic signal, it would have been smooth sailing all the way to Elk River.

I know there are long range plans to rebuild the US10/MN101 interchange, but are there any plans to make 169 a freeway through Elk River? They seem to have enough ROW to do it.

My in-laws live just off MN23 near Mora.  I don't think that pavement has had any rehab in the 25 years I've been coming up here. VERY rough and the seams have settled so you get the railroad effect.  I would think MnDOT needs to look at expanding the capacity as the road was full of traffic regardless of the time of day. With a speed limit of 55 and few passing areas, it can take 30 minutes to go 20 miles.

MN65 from Mora to Cambridge has even more traffic.  Are there any plans to four lane it? Got stuck behind 10-12 car lines every trip on that stretch.  Plenty of places to pass, but there was always too much oncoming traffic.

The whole US10/I494/I35W triangle is a mess!  We had to go to from the Northtown area to Northwestern College.  Couldn't really figure out an easy way around that mess.

rte66man

[Mdcastle]

Long range plans (not currently programmed before 2030) are to have the entire MN 101/US 169 Corridor from Rogers to Zimmerman (as well as US 10 from Anoka through Elk River) be a freeway. Given the current funding all these projects are in deep freeze, although 1-shot "pop-up-projects" appear as funding materializes. The interchange at County 33, the three interchanges in Ostego. The flyover ramp (which didn't fit the original plan for the interchange). Funding materialized to removed the next light south of the Otsego freeway segment, so Northbound traffic from I-94 will not encounter a signal until Elk River. Also in the area, US 10 and Armstrong Blvd will likely get done due to motiviation by the city of Ramsey.

There's no plans for signicant improvement to MN 65, except there was a study for capacity improvements just north of US 10, which resulted, for now, with the interchange with MN 242 (or whatever it's called now).

Also of note, their were plans to extend the US 169 expressway north to Garrison, but they were cancelled due to interference from the local Indians.

Oh, and my sister is an alumnus from Northwestern College. Nazarath Hall was built by the Catholics who spared no expense and it's an absolutely gorgeous building

[kphoger]

I'm drooling at the idea of driving from Rogers to Princeton on a full freeway....

[froggie]

I mentioned this in another thread, but there's a plan to build an interchange on 101 at CSAH 144 in 2014.  Which, as Monte noted, will remove the last northbound stoplight between Rogers and Elk River (southbound will still have the lights near 94).

There's a desire to widen Hwy 65 north of Cambridge to the 107 split, but there's no money to do so.  No further widening plans for Hwy 23 east of Foley, and to be honest, overall traffic volumes don't really support widening anyway, though a couple of passing lanes might be useful.

[rte66man]

There's a desire to widen Hwy 65 north of Cambridge to the 107 split, but there's no money to do so.  No further widening plans for Hwy 23 east of Foley, and to be honest, overall traffic volumes don't really support widening anyway, though a couple of passing lanes might be useful.

Is MnDOT open to stretches of 1-2 miles of passing lanes on roads like 23 and 65? 

I don't think they have much respect for 23 between Milaca and Hinckley. Crappy, overage pavement.  They won't even 4 lane it in Mora.  So what is the general traffic count criteria for consideration of widening?

rte66man

[froggie]

Is MnDOT open to stretches of 1-2 miles of passing lanes on roads like 23 and 65?

Based on past precedent elsewhere (namely US 2, US 12, MN 7, and MN 371 before they finally 4-laned it south of Brainerd), they may be open to it.

So what is the general traffic count criteria for consideration of widening?

For long range planning purposes, MnDOT uses a 15K figure for urban areas and an 11,200 figure for rural areas, though the latter generally ranges from 10K-12K.  None of MN 23 east of MN 95 meets this criteria.  MN 65 meets the criteria south of MN 107, but not north.  Coming north from Cambridge, 45% of the traffic turns onto MN 107...it's a major traffic split.  And since you mention Mora, thought I'd mention that MN 23 has more traffic in both Milaca and Foley than it does in Mora.

[rte66man]

For long range planning purposes, MnDOT uses a 15K figure for urban areas and an 11,200 figure for rural areas, though the latter generally ranges from 10K-12K.  None of MN 23 east of MN 95 meets this criteria.  MN 65 meets the criteria south of MN 107, but not north.  Coming north from Cambridge, 45% of the traffic turns onto MN 107...it's a major traffic split.  And since you mention Mora, thought I'd mention that MN 23 has more traffic in both Milaca and Foley than it does in Mora.

I'm not doubting the figures, but I would question where on 23 they had the counter located.  If it was in front of the McDonalds, they OK, If in front of the Post Office, then they missed almost all the local traffic. 

rte66man