Council supports retaining northbound I-35 exit ramp
Ramp to be removed when Broadway Avenue bridge opens next month
Jennifer Mevissen
Staff Writer
Progress on the Broadway Avenue bridge over I-35 continues, even ahead of schedule despite a three-week state government shutdown.
And when the new eight-lane span opens next month, the plan from the get-go has been to remove the temporary ramps at the CR-83 (SW 11th Ave.) overpass.
However, local officials and citizens are lobbying to keep the northbound exit intact – at least for the time being. The exit ramp and the southbound I-35 entrance from the I-35 Rest Area are both slated to close.
At the Monday, Sept. 12 Forest Lake City Council meeting, members unanimously agreed to draft a resolution for presentation to the Washington County Board, Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration supporting public interest in the concept of permanently retaining the current northbound exit to 11th Avenue pending further study of costs and benefits of such ramp.
In addition, the council recommend that access be kept open until discussions have occurred between all the entities.
Wayne Sandberg, county engineer and deputy director of the transportation department, addressed the issue. He said the goal is to get traffic back onto the corridor to be able to start accessing Broadway Ave. businesses again. The $16 million improvement project began in May, with construction expected to wrap up in the fall of 2012.
“It’s not unusual for communities to ask for more access to the freeway,” Sandberg said.
However, he said both the state and federal transportation departments do not support keeping the exits in place. Sandberg reminded the city council the ramps were intended to be temporary all along.
He indicated that when the project was originally proposed, the county proposed there be permanent access to I-35. The agencies with oversight gave permission to allow the exit ramps on a temporary basis, and do not want to degrade operation of the freeway by allowing more points of entry.
“It’s almost unproductive to push for those,” Sandberg said.
He noted there might be a chance to install permanent access to the interstate – due to the current exit ramps having not been subcut, so organic materials remains below the pavement – once Broadway Ave. is open and after TH-97 is reconfigured.
Public Interest
Councilman Michael Freer said he’s had at least a dozen conversations about the possibility and this is the first he’s heard that the feds are part of the hold up, and now apparently county staff, too.
“This is completely new information to me,” Freer said.
Sandberg said the city’s initial request to MnDOT to make the access permanent was denied. The Broadway Ave. bridge is on target for completion on Oct. 14. The intention is to close the temporary exit ramps then, he noted.
“Washington County is not to be seen as a barrier,” Sandberg said.
Forest Lake property owner John Freed said that as a member of the design review committee, he has been a proponent of leaving the exit ramp from northbound I-35 to CR-83 in place after the Broadway bridge is open.
Corridor Work
When the state shutdown occurred in July, the contractor on the Broadway Ave. project – Redstone Construction Co. – was able to do more in the corridor due to not being able to work in MnDOT’s right-of-way between the CR-2 exit ramps.
Sandberg told the city council the contractor is requesting to move a portion of the work scheduled for next spring into the final stages of construction this year. The specific project identified for 2011 is a deep sanitary sewer replacement that runs between 4th Street and Centennial Drive along the centerline of CR-2.
He said there are significant benefits for doing the work in 2011. It would be eliminated from next year’s timeline.
Furthermore, doing the replacement now would insure the best chance of wrapping up construction prior to Forest Lake’s annual Fourth of July celebration. “We can have a parade with no issues,” Sandberg said.
The downside to doing the work soon is that no cross-traffic would be allowed at that intersection, and will take three weeks to complete.
Mayor Chris Johnson suggested that the city find out what the affected businesses think of the proposal.
Councilwoman Jackie McNamara said she’s concerned with the impact of construction in a area that wasn’t supposed to be disturbed until 2012.
However, Councilwoman Susan Young said she favored the replacement this year as it could shorten the time Broadway Ave. is under construction.
Other Business
In other news from Sept. 12, the council:
•Approved two contractor’s requests for payments. Both are for Knife River Corporation: $213,074.60 for the 2011 mill and overlay project and $57,782.14 for the SW 12th Street – Walmart (SW 3rd Avenue) right turn lane improvements.
•Approved abatement of public nuisance immediately and authorized all costs, including being mowed by the public works department, associated be assessed to the subject properties; 22991 Hilo Ave. N., 20599 Keewahtin Ave., and 719 SW 5th St.
There has always been a federal regulation regarding distance(s) between exit ramps so it shouldn’t be surprising or “news to me” to any council member who is paying attention. And, of course property owner Mr. Freed would want this exit to stay open as it exits right near his property. Thus, increasing his personal property value. Besides, I thought the intent was to improve the corridor, to make it more appealing for residents, visitors, and businesses. Why try to reinvent the wheel now and have people exit prior to reaching it? On the flip side, it’s nice to see the council agree on something.
Fed rules are great guidelines but sometime they hinder common sense. I don’t care who owns the property next to the new 11th Ave bridge in Forest Lake. The building of a multimillion dollar bridge without ramps is a waste of resources and a waste taxpayer money. Yes federal rules don’t want ramps to close for safety reasons but in this case the new 11th Ave bridge can’t be build further south because of the water ways south of the new bridge but there is still enough room for ramps at that 11th Ave bridge. Further more the Broadway north bound entrance to I35/ Hwy 8 is a safety issue that could have been eased by adding a north bound ramp at the 11th Ave bridge. It would have served the industrial park and large trucks who need more time and distance to gain enough speed to trying to safely enter I35 and get up to speed while trying to move over to the left avoiding Hwy 8 exit. Better placement of the temporary north bound exit ramp to 11th Ave has been a real benefit to people living on the SW corner of town and the rest area south bound ramp more than speaks for itself in terms on sharing a approach with the rest area, it just works well and help lessen the congestion of too much coming together like the current I35/Hwy8/Broadway interchange now has. This should have been designed into the original proposal and the cost would have been minimal you spent the money on temporary ramps already what little more in real dollars it would have cost to make them permanent. The attachment to the frontage road and loop under the bridge to north bound freeway would have been and easy change simply pushing the frontage road further to the south near the bridge on the land that had to be purchased anyway to make the changes to the frontage road access to 11th Ave.
While the long term cost to add this needed safety improvement would have been better served at the beginning of the project its not to late to add this improvement yet and best serve the long term interest of a growing Forest Lake area.