Minnesota Notes

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I've heard suggesitons the city planted those on their own. Are they actually still standing? I had seen photos but I didn't see any the last time I was in Caledonia when I looked for them.

[flan]

Yep, that picture was from yesterday. I didn't remember seeing them when I drove through about three years ago.

[froggie]

The only business routes that are on the state highway system are Brainerd and East Grand Forks.  All others (including Willmar*) are purely local endeavors.


* A small part of the north end of the Willmar business route is technically on MnDOT's system, but it's officially part of now-unsigned MN 294.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Fiurther investigation raises even more questions for me - those BUS 44 signs *look* quite old, but only went up sometime after 2012. I can't find exactly what year the 44/76 "bypass" opened;  it was at minimum prior to 1980.

[WisJohn]

Fiurther investigation raises even more questions for me - those BUS 44 signs *look* quite old, but only went up sometime after 2012. I can't find exactly what year the 44/76 "bypass" opened;  it was at minimum prior to 1980.

It was before 1952, per Historic Aerials.

[froggie]

Fiurther investigation raises even more questions for me - those BUS 44 signs *look* quite old, but only went up sometime after 2012. I can't find exactly what year the 44/76 "bypass" opened;  it was at minimum prior to 1980.

It was before 1952, per Historic Aerials.

Graded in 1949, concrete in 1950 per MnDOT project logs.

[bschultzy]

There's a resolution that passed the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission to officially restore the Rondo Ave name along Concordia Ave from Griggs to Kellogg. The section of Concordia Ave west of Griggs would remain Concordia. As I understand the process, the full City Council will hold hearings on it before deciding to pass it later this month.

Concordia University is in favor of the move. Interestingly enough, the name Concordia was first proposed by Public Works Commissioner Milton Rosen and approved in January of 1964, though the College (at the time) was in support of the idea. It wasn't until about 10-12 years ago that Concordia moved its official mailing address to Concordia Ave.; previously, the school's address was on Syndicate St.

[The Ghostbuster]

Was Concordia Ave. west of N. Griggs St. named Rondo Ave. as well? Or was that segment always Concordia Ave.? Google Maps also lists Concordia Ave as Old Rondo Ave. between Victoria St. and Dale St. N.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Was Concordia Ave. west of N. Griggs St. named Rondo Ave. as well? Or was that segment always Concordia Ave.? Google Maps also lists Concordia Ave as Old Rondo Ave. between Victoria St. and Dale St. N.

No. Before 94 came, St. Anthony Ave (which today is the frontage road to 94 on the north side of the area) angled southwest-northeast and Rondo ended westbound approximately at St. Anthony and Dunlap Ave just west of Lexington Parkway, and St. Anthony continued west.

[bschultzy]

Was Concordia Ave. west of N. Griggs St. named Rondo Ave. as well? Or was that segment always Concordia Ave.? Google Maps also lists Concordia Ave as Old Rondo Ave. between Victoria St. and Dale St. N.

No. Before 94 came, St. Anthony Ave (which today is the frontage road to 94 on the north side of the area) angled southwest-northeast and Rondo ended westbound approximately at St. Anthony and Dunlap Ave just west of Lexington Parkway, and St. Anthony continued west.

Not 100% accurate. Per historic aerial imagery, Griggs/St. Anthony was the endpoint of Rondo at the NE corner of the Concordia campus.

Concordia Ave. west of Hamline Ave. used to be Roblyn Ave. Concordia east of Hamline to Griggs was St. Anthony.

[froggie]

A couple neat sidenotes about that aerial image:

• You can make out the streetcar platforms in the median along University.
• It shows how industrial the St Paul Midway used to be...a key factor in then-MHD's decision to route I-94 along St Anthony Ave instead of parallel to the Great Northern rail mainline (now BNSF's Midway Subdivision) as George Herrold (St Paul's city planner of the time) proposed.

[froggie]

This is a new one for me.  MnDOT and Scott County have plans for an interchange at US 169 and CR 59, about 2 miles southwest of Jordan.  Construction next year.  The plan is for a folded-diamond interchange.

[Molandfreak]

This is a new one for me.  MnDOT and Scott County have plans for an interchange at US 169 and CR 59, about 2 miles southwest of Jordan.  Construction next year.  The plan is for a folded-diamond interchange.

Yeah, I was also surprised to see that

[Mdcastle]

You've seen this map, right?

[froggie]

Not before this, no.

[Molandfreak]

Nice to see a few more TH 13 interchanges in the plan.

[bschultzy]

There's a resolution that passed the St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission to officially restore the Rondo Ave name along Concordia Ave from Griggs to Kellogg. The section of Concordia Ave west of Griggs would remain Concordia. As I understand the process, the full City Council will hold hearings on it before deciding to pass it later this month.

Concordia University is in favor of the move. Interestingly enough, the name Concordia was first proposed by Public Works Commissioner Milton Rosen and approved in January of 1964, though the College (at the time) was in support of the idea. It wasn't until about 10-12 years ago that Concordia moved its official mailing address to Concordia Ave.; previously, the school's address was on Syndicate St.

Yesterday, the St. Paul City Council voted to restore the name of Rondo Ave. The renaming will take place in two stages: first, Concordia will become Rondo from Griggs east to Mackubin. Then, when the next council is in place, the process will restart with the Heritage Preservation Commission and look to rename St. Anthony to Rondo from Western to Rice. It's not yet known if the Concordia name will remain from Mackubin east to Kellogg.

Link repaired.  --J N Winkler

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Nice to see a few more TH 13 interchanges in the plan.

I notice an expansion of the US 169 river bridge is in the long-term plans, but I think the problem is more on the Hennepin County side. The road really needs to be 6-laned from 494 to the river.

[Mdcastle]

Maybe Scott County could pay for that after they're done paying for the Chowen Ave interchange in Dakota County.

[Molandfreak]

Maybe Scott County could pay for that after they're done paying for the Chowen Ave interchange in Dakota County.

As if the backups from the Chowen Avenue light don't affect Scott County residents, too? I'm sure there's no shortage of people who think this is a valuable use of taxpayer money...

[Molandfreak]

An interesting thing in Dakota County is that CSAH 9 is now signed on 175th Street at Cedar Avenue, but it is still signed on Dodd Boulevard at Pilot Knob Road. The project website says work is still being done on Dodd until mid-spring, so the remaining signage will probably change when that is completed. It would have been a better idea to leave CSAH 9 unsigned in this area in the meantime.

[andarcondadont]

An interesting thing in Dakota County is that CSAH 9 is now signed on 175th Street at Cedar Avenue, but it is still signed on Dodd Boulevard at Pilot Knob Road. The project website says work is still being done on Dodd until mid-spring, so the remaining signage will probably change when that is completed. It would have been a better idea to leave CSAH 9 unsigned in this area in the meantime.

**179th Street. My question is: will the CSAH 9 designation continue along 179th Street east of Cedar Avenue? I ask because all the county routes in Dakota County seem to follow a grid numbering scheme and having CSAH 9 transition to a west-east route would break that convention.

[Molandfreak]

An interesting thing in Dakota County is that CSAH 9 is now signed on 175th Street at Cedar Avenue, but it is still signed on Dodd Boulevard at Pilot Knob Road. The project website says work is still being done on Dodd until mid-spring, so the remaining signage will probably change when that is completed. It would have been a better idea to leave CSAH 9 unsigned in this area in the meantime.

**179th Street. My question is: will the CSAH 9 designation continue along 179th Street east of Cedar Avenue? I ask because all the county routes in Dakota County seem to follow a grid numbering scheme and having CSAH 9 transition to a west-east route would break that convention.

It does seem that way since they have signage in both directions from Cedar (along with switching to pentagon signage rather than the white square). I haven't read what the ultimate plan is going to be yet, but the road dead ends shortly after crossing Pilot Knob. Maybe this plan is a ruse for Dakota County to take back control of 170th Street near Whitetail Woods.

[n0ax]

It looks like value engineering is making the upcoming 169/282 interchange worse, the SB 169 to 282/CH 9 ramp originally intended to meet the planned roundabout will be replaced with a buttonhook with far less deceleration distance (only 600 feet). For a very marginal decrease in cost I fail to understand how compromising this design element is beneficial to anyone? It's like we have traveled back in time with substandard crap interchanges?

[Molandfreak]

A weird thing in Blue Earth County that recently happened in conjunction with closing the CSAH 27 left turn lane in Eagle Lake: CSAH 17 between TH 60 and CSAH 27 has been redesigned as CSAH or CR 170 (not sure if it's still receiving state aid), so there are now two disconnected sections of CSAH 17.