Future bright with bridge, new corridor
Safety, mobility on Broadway will be greatly improved
Jennifer Mevissen
Staff Writer
Local officials are optimistic that Forest Lake will have a bright future with its new Broadway Avenue bridge and reconstructed corridor.
“Welcome back to Broadway,” Washington County Engineer Wayne Sandberg said last Saturday to a crowd that had gathered on a beautiful fall morning to celebrate completion of the second phase in a mega improvement project.
He emceed the ‘Back 2 Broadway’ event, introducing representatives from the city, county, and dignitaries.
Sandberg said the community weathered the road construction which he described as messy, inconvenient and unpredictable.
Closing the I-35 interchange to traffic had a major impact, but Sandberg believes residents and businesses stayed positive and supportive over the past five months, calculated to be 100 working days starting from May 5.
“From what I’m hearing, the locals [shoppers] stepped up and stayed in Forest Lake,” he said.
The old structure was a four-span, steel beam bridge built in 1967 with a deck width of a little under 60 feet. At the time it was constructed, Sandberg said it was a two-lane bridge with shoulders and 2.5 foot sidewalks on each side. The length was 231 feet.
“It was really a vehicle corridor, not an even good one at that,” he said.
What stands today is a two-span, pre-stressed concrete beam bridge with a deck width of just over 118 feet. The design is a six-lane, 250 foot bridge with a sidewalk on the north side and trail on the south side to make it pedestrian-friendly. On the north side of Broadway Ave. there is a 6-foot wide concrete sidewalk and an 8-foot asphalt trail on the south side.
The CR-83 overpass provides alternative freeway crossing, relieving pressure at CR-2. Sandberg said the new Broadway bridge is a long-term solution that meets traffic demands and future projections.
In 1965, there were just 975 vehicles per day on Broadway. That jumped up to 9,240 in 1980 and increased three-fold in 2010 to 32,000. It is expected that by 2030, there will be 44,800 vehicles traversing the span per day.
The CR-2 bridge features improvements such as flattening the vertical curve for sight distance, raised medians and channelized turn lanes to help with traffic operations and reduce vehicle conflicts, and adding capacity for flow at major intersections means that it should take less time to get across it.
“This project will improve mobility and safety,” said Washington County Commissioner Dennis Hegberg of Forest Lake who long lobbied for the city improvements and supported county bonding.
The old structure was very unsafe, Sandberg said.
“You had a greater chance of being in a crash on this road then any other in the Twin Cities,” he added.
Sandberg said building the bridge under traffic versus removing it was studied, but the latter would be better for time and costs. The county implements a local detour route with temporary access points to I-35 at CR-83.
The new structure and reconstructed corridor was bid at $16,398,691.54 by Mora-based Redstone Construction Co. The total transportation investment in Forest Lake when all projects are completed in 2013 will be nearly $41 million, he said. Major work on the eastern end of Broadway will begin next spring.
Chris Johnson is the fifth mayor of Forest Lake to provide input on the project. He hopes it will enhance business vitality, even to the downtown.
“I think everybody is excited about opening up the new gateway to Forest Lake,” he said.
In regards to the aesthetics, Sandberg said colors will match the CR-83 overpass and compliment the Hardwood Creek Trail Pedestrian Bridge. The ornamental railing, banner poles, decorative lighting and brick pillars tie into the downtown theme, he added. Landscaping will be finished next spring.
Dedication of the new Broadway bridge and reconstructed corridor, with a ceremonial ribbon cutting, also marked the one-year anniversary of the roundabout opening to traffic.
“It’s a great improvement for the downtown,” said City Engineer Ryan Goodman.
He’s heard a lot of positive feedback on the roundabout which replaced a signalized light system at Lake Street (US-61) and Broadway. Johnson said there are virtually no backups and no serious accidents at that intersection.
“The look of the roundabout coupled with the pedestrian bridge creates a new character to our downtown that we didn’t have before,” Johnson said.
Lois and Warren Arndt moved to Forest Lake six years ago. The ‘snowbirds’ said the streetscape is terrific and a new bridge was long overdue.
“We appreciate so many of the new developments that have happened since we’ve lived here,” Lois said. “It’s a welcoming community,” she added.
What’s Next
A new stop light will be installed at 8th Street sometime next month.
The contractor was able to complete deep sanitary sewer work between 6th and 4th streets which Sandberg said will save four-plus weeks of construction in 2012. The goal has been to finish the third and final stage of work before Forest Lake’s annual Fourth of July celebration.
Construction of a new pedestrian bridge over the Hardwood Creek Trail at CR-83 will still begin this fall and is expected to be built in 2012. The county awarded that contract to Sunram Construction at a cost of $1.1 million.
The picture showed Mayor Chris Johnson cutting the ribbon. The one helping him should have been Stev Stegner. His 4 years in office were the years the bridge came to life.
If it hadn’t been for his(Stev stegner) vision of having the bridge we would of had 7 roundabouts and the bridge would of not been redone or widened. The previous Mayors before Stev Stegner messed up Broadway and 12th street. They were not involved in the process of this bridge.
Congratulations goes to Former Mayor Stev Stegner for having the forsight to push for a new bridge and attending all those planning meetings. Eugene Huerstel
Well it certainly sounds like Stev Stegner is the man!
We watched the “parade” and it was embarassingly small with very little community support. Just a lot of political brass with big pats on their own backs. As far as Wayne’s comments that people stayed and continued shopping in FL he wasn’t listening – in a Kstp interview that interviewed 5 business they said that businesses had been hit hard. Even a staple business such as groceries were affected. Cub’s manager had to lay off iworkers and was down 30%. It also contradicts Wayne’s own comments in a recent paper saying that it would take until 2013 to get the traffic flow pattern back to what it was pre construction. He’s great at spin – as long as it pats him on the back. Hopefully he doesn’t choke on his own accolades.
It’s interesting that just last year Sandberg mentioned that Broadway was the worst traffic section in Washington Co – Wow, now he’s saying it was the worst in the entire Twin Cities. How much had the spin changed and gotten bigger in the last 100 days. Apparently, Wayne thinks he is Superman rescuing us from the big bad old Broadway. By the way just walk the sidewalk on the North side – just beware of those doing u-turns its designed so that tthose cars need that same sidewalk too.
I believe (road) Improvement is good for a community, but so would some truth even if it’s brutal and not pretty. Honesty that would be the best improvement we could ask for.