Minnesota Notes

[froggie]

Why did MnDOT say no? The cost? I see the removal of another at-grade rail crossing along with better access to that area.

They did not say no to the design Monte posted...they said no to the originally preferred design, dated 2011.  THAT design had the full interchange at Coon Rapids Blvd, not East River Rd.  My guess is they (and the Met Council too, which is the regional MPO) said no because it was too close to the MN 47 ramps.

[rte66man]

Why did MnDOT say no? The cost? I see the removal of another at-grade rail crossing along with better access to that area.

They did not say no to the design Monte posted...they said no to the originally preferred design, dated 2011.  THAT design had the full interchange at Coon Rapids Blvd, not East River Rd.  My guess is they (and the Met Council too, which is the regional MPO) said no because it was too close to the MN 47 ramps.

Gotcha.  Will go back and take a look at the 2011 design.  Any design that includes the removal of an at-grade crossing of a major Class 1 railroad gets my vote.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

I really don't like what they did with the interchange rebuild at 694 and Rice St. It's similar to the nearby rebuild of the 36/Rice interchange with the awkward offset SPUI, but with roundabouts in this layout. There's just too much going on in too small a space.

[texaskdog]

I really don’t like what they did with the interchange rebuild at 694 and Rice St. It’s similar to the nearby rebuild of the 36/Rice interchange with the awkward offset SPUI, but with roundabouts in this layout. There’s just too much going on in too small a space.

Minnesota never thinks things through

[Mdcastle]

I-94 Clearwater to Fish Lake road work photos
https://www.northstarhighways.com/?page_id=590

[Papa Emeritus]

Several road projects are wrapping up this week:

The big one, for those of us who fly a lot, is that MN-5 is fully reopening today between 55/62 and I-494. When I go out of town, I normally park at Park and Fly, near 494 and 34th street, and the MN-5 construction has added close to ten minutes to my trip between Park and Fly and MSP airport.

The ramp from 46th Street to NB 35W also reopens today, 9 months ahead of schedule.

The SB 35W to WB 494 ramp reopened on Wednesday.

Finally, Ayd Mill Road reopens at 7 AM tomorrow. An open house will be held at 9 AM to celebrate.

Here's a link to more information about the reopenings:

https://www.startribune.com/hwy-5-near-msp-airport-key-ramp-on-i-35w-in-minneapolis-to-open-friday/572984362/?refresh=true

It's not strictly road related, but construction began on Monday on a bicycle and pedestrian overpass of the BNSF tracks in St Louis Park. The overpass runs from where Edgewood Road dead ends at the BNSF tracks south of Cedar Lake Road, to Peter Hobart Elementary School south of the tracks, with a connection to Dakota Ave. The overpass will enable people who live north of the tracks to walk or bike to the future light rail station at Wooddale Avenue south of Highway 7.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The temporary express/local on 94 EB between 101 and 494/694 was removed overnight and it's back to normal configuration. I wonder if they'll go back to that for westbound when they rebuild that direction next year,

[EpicRoadways]

The temporary express/local on 94 EB between 101 and 494/694 was removed overnight and it's back to normal configuration. I wonder if they'll go back to that for westbound when they rebuild that direction next year,

If they do, they need to add some temporary lighting to the lane shifts/ splits at each end. The shifts for the EB "local lanes" in the vicinity of the MN-101 interchange were especially treacherous in the dark.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

The remaining 55 MPH section of MN 100 between 394 and 494 was raised to 60. I expected that to happen eventually once the rebuild through St. Louis Park was done, but it took a couple years.

Also noticed today the work zone 60s on 94 are done for the winter and it's back to 70.

[MNtoOC]

As always, sorry if this has been asked before. Does anyone have any idea why the signage for Stearns and Benton Counties have been replaced on MN 23 in St Cloud with signs that say "Granite City Crossing" ? (This is co-signed on both ends of the bridge with the Mississippi River.) The change is visible on Google Maps between 2012 and 2015, but not sure when in that range they were changed. I don't know of any other instance of a Minnesota County Line on a major highway not indicating the change of county like this anymore. Plus, I'll admit that the border of the Granite City Crossing signs look thin enough for the signs to have been made by a road geek just to see if someone notices (I did), or more likely just made "not to spec" by a city/county/contractor instead of MnDOT. Thoughts?

[EpicRoadways]

As always, sorry if this has been asked before. Does anyone have any idea why the signage for Stearns and Benton Counties have been replaced on MN 23 in St Cloud with signs that say "Granite City Crossing" ? (This is co-signed on both ends of the bridge with the Mississippi River.) The change is visible on Google Maps between 2012 and 2015, but not sure when in that range they were changed. I don't know of any other instance of a Minnesota County Line on a major highway not indicating the change of county like this anymore. Plus, I'll admit that the border of the Granite City Crossing signs look thin enough for the signs to have been made by a road geek just to see if someone notices (I did), or more likely just made "not to spec" by a city/county/contractor instead of MnDOT. Thoughts?

That must be a city of St Cloud install. They aren't exactly known for having the prettiest signage. Also, for the record, I've lived in the area most of my life and never once heard that bridge called the Granite City Crossing in conversation. Usually when referring to the bridge you'll just hear people say "23 across the river" or "the 23 bridge." Sometimes someone will even drop a reference to the old DeSoto bridge. Heck, if I weren't a roadgeek I probably wouldn't know that bridge had a name. Maybe that's why the sign is there 

[froggie]

Granite City Crossing as a name didn't exist until the bridge replaced the old DeSoto Bridge in 2009.  The St. Cloud City Council voted that year on the name change.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

At least at the east end of the bridge there's immediately a sign for a left turn to the Benton County fairgrounds. Westbound no such luck though.

[Mdcastle]

Minnesota Standard Signs.

https://www.dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng/publ/signsmanual/2020/standardsignsummary.pdf

Of note they've developed designs for all of the 161.14 routes, including none that will ever be signed again because they're politically incorrect and/or no one is still alive that wants to pay for them. And most of the "Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Highway" signs have changed from green to brown.

[kphoger]

Minnesota Standard Signs.

https://www.dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng/publ/signsmanual/2020/standardsignsummary.pdf

Of note they've developed designs for all of the 161.14 routes, including none that will ever be signed again because they're politically incorrect and/or no one is still alive that wants to pay for them. And most of the "Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Highway" signs have changed from green to brown.

My favorites:

M1-4M – white/green US-Bus shields
M1-5Ma – white/green SR-Bus shield

R12-X3a – 'VEHICLES MUST NOT MEET ON BRIDGE'   (?)

[MNtoOC]

I'm still surprised that those Benton and Sherburne county signs were allowed to have just been removed in St Cloud, but I guess if MnDOT doesn't care and no one complains...

I hadn't seen the guide for all the signs before, so I looked for a few of the M series signs out of curiosity. I happened to pick out M1-X326 as it should be easy to find in Street View. In doing so, I was amused to see that while the guide clearly shows "Ruby L. Hughes Blvd" in the image (with Blvd in smaller script), the actual 2 signs in place both feature "Ruby Hughes Blvd" all in the same size (and sans the middle initial). I wonder if the signs are even actually 84 x 12 or not. Perhaps they were replaced at some time.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

Minnesota Standard Signs.

https://www.dot.state.mn.us/trafficeng/publ/signsmanual/2020/standardsignsummary.pdf

Of note they've developed designs for all of the 161.14 routes, including none that will ever be signed again because they're politically incorrect and/or no one is still alive that wants to pay for them. And most of the "Dr. Marvin Monroe Memorial Highway" signs have changed from green to brown.

I noticed both in the guide and in the field the Lake Superior Circle Tour signs in Minnesota are now brown instead of the green used by every other Great Lakes entity and previously used by Minnesota (there might be an old green sign or two still left on MN 61; from my experience MN signs their circle tour by far the most poorly of any of the states/provinces).

[TheHighwayMan3561]

As part of the 494/694 Woodbury interchange improvements MnDOT has changed the control city for I-94 East to Eau Claire when approaching on 494/694. On 94 itself approaching the interchange it's still Madison (at least for now); I didn't get to look beyond the interchange if they've slapped Eau Claire on the second line of any mileage signs east of 494/694.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

MN 30's reroute around the Rochester airport is in official operation, though some signage is still missing especially leaving US 63 headed westbound. Curious if Olmsted County got anything in the swap, or if this is ultimately just the other half of the deal that took US 63 off Broadway Ave north of 52 in Rochester.

[texaskdog]

63 in Rochester puzzles me.  It was originally ending in Lake City which explains the routing as opposed to routing it on MN 58. Now having moved it out of Rochester makes more sense to move 63 over to 58 yet they just made a strange routing around town. 

[froggie]

US 63 never ended in Lake City.  Its Minnesota predecessor..."US 59", did.  But US 59 was short-lived...it appears that neither Iowa nor Wisconsin were interested in that route number, but they did accept 63.  But by the time US 63 was officially extended into Minnesota, it was continued across the river into Wisconsin.

I wouldn't call the Rochester routing strange.  It's effectively a Rochester bypass for 63.  Furthermore, it's a combination of Rochester wanting more control over Broadway plus 5 miles less of route for MnDOT to have to maintain.  Can't eliminate a route entirely between Rochester and Lake City because it's Constitutional Route.

Moving 63 to 58 also means you're swapping one route concurrency (US 61/63) with an even longer concurrency (US 52/63...26 miles versus 15 miles for 61/63).

[midwesternroadguy]

Moving 63 to 58 also means you're swapping one route concurrency (US 61/63) with an even longer concurrency (US 52/63...26 miles versus 15 miles for 61/63).
[/quote]

Nine miles of the 52/63 concurrency would remain regardless of whether US 63 follows US 52 north of 75th Street or not.  Therefore continuing 63 along 52 toward Zumbrota would only add ~15 miles to it, so it would be a wash compared to the US 61/63 concurrency. 

[TheHighwayMan3561]

As froggie stated, Rochester-Lake City has to stay a state highway, so is it really worth it to swap 63 and 58 to correct a minor corridor inefficiency?

Rochester-Red Wing via Zumbrota is about 10 minutes shorter than going to Lake City, but a good chunk of that difference today can be attributed to US 52 being almost all freeway between Rochester and Zumbrota. It was probably only a couple minutes back in 1930.

Why they didn't put 63 on 58 at day one could be a curiosity in itself, regardless.

[froggie]

^ Which, IMO, is because 63 directly replaced "US 59", which was MN 59 prior to that.  And that version of 59 went to Lake City.

[Papa Emeritus]

Today's Star Tribune says MnDoT has opened an underpass for deer on Highway 14 near Claremont, as part of the Highway 14 widening. Here's the link:

https://www.startribune.com/roadkill-remedy-mndot-tunnel-now-offers-deer-passage-under-highway/573382971/

MnDoT will be using landscaping to funnel deer into the tunnel. However, MnDoT doesn't have unrealistic expectations about the tunnel's ability to reduce car / deer interactions on 14 in the short term; they say it will take time for deer to learn where the tunnel is, and teach their children to use it.