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Northwest. Metro • • • . Roadect. m moves. • • area into the fast lane Investment to follow- Highway 610 • By Dave Price . "Highway 100 absolutely is our next big Contributing writer priority in this area," said Tinldenberg, who The northwest suburbs are primed for a also remains active with several regional new round of robust growth over the next organizations that have been lobbying feder- few years,thanks in large part to the planned al and state officials to bring more trans- completion of a major new roadway portation funding into the northwest sub- designed•to carry tens of thousands more urbs."I don't think you have to tell anybody vehicles through the region every day. who's driven on that road between [inter- Construction is slated to begin next states] 394 and 694 that something has to be month on the first phase of Highway 610, done soon." also called the North Crosstown,which will But few area communities have escaped connect Coon Rapids and Blaine across the at least some traffic problems in recent existing Highway 610 bridge over the years,and as more new development moves Mississippi River into Brooklyn Park and out to the far corners of the metropolitan Brooklyn Center.When complete,the $145 area the traditional commuting patterns million project ultimately will extend west through the region are changing as well,said into Maple Grove and add a new and much- Curt Larson,an economic development spe- needed link between interstates 94 and 35W. cialist for the city of Blaine. "Obviously;the [Highway] 610 trunk is More of the driving is from suburb to going to spur a lot of industrial and com- suburb rather than to and from the central mercial growth for us," said Scott Clark, cities, he observes, which in turn is forcing deputy community development director in' city planners to grapple with growing con- Brooklyn Park."It's a real opportunity for us gestion on secondary roads and streets orig- to add to more balance in the city with a inally designed to handle far less traffic. place for the traditional manufacturing, dis- So far, Larson said the escalating traffic tribution and warehouse facilities while coupled with a relative lack of state and fed- reservingthe new corridor for those higher- eral funding in the past for road repairs and echelon industrial [properties] and campus- new construction has yet to adversely affect type developments." development in the northwestern suburbs. Officials in other cities along the project "We've been pretty busy here and expect path likewise voiced high expectations that to stay that way for long time," he said. the North Crosstown will usher in an "But when you look at how fast other areas extended period of fresh building and job have grown after they built roads like the growth. southern Crosstown [Highway 62], you can "There's going to be a long round of sig- see the huge impact a new road can have. I nificant private investment because of the just think this area probably would have 610 highway,"said El Tinklenberg,the divi- developed much more quickly if they had sion manager for public services in Anoka built [Highway 610] 10 or 20 years ago." County and the former mayor of Blaine. "That's good because it's not only going to Bridging the gap help the communities in the immediate area Longer term,several community officials but it's eventually going to spread out said another bridge across the Mississippi • throughout much of the region." between Anoka and the Highway 610 cross- Tinklenberg said another benefit of the ing eventually will be needed to foster those new Crosstown project has been that it has burgeoning economic ties between cities in worked to promote a common identity the northwest suburbs. across the northern and northwestern sub- Work on a new Mississippi River bridge urbs that should work to aid future efforts to in Anoka should be completed by next sum- improve the region's infrastructure. mer, said Robert Kirchner, the city's com- munity development director. But he said Congestion ahead that project is not expected to significantly Still, no one was predicting that the new add to the overall capacity of the existing Crosstown roadway would be a panacea, structures in the area to carry traffic across and they said considerable work is needed the river and that a larger bridge will need to on other major highways in the area to alle- be built. viate ongoing traffic difficulties. "That's probably the most important - The more 'persistent bottlenecks are infrastructure improvement that we could along Highway 100 through Golden Valley, do,"he said. "Not having that bridge hasn't Robbinsdale and points north and on really affected residential or commercial Interstate 94/694 where the freeway narrows development around here too much because from three lanes to two. we get a lot of our labor force traveling in ' Traffic also continues to swell on U.S from central Minnesota.Where I think that a 169 and U.S. 10,which runs on a northwest- new bridge will have the most benefit are in to-southeast diagonal from the St. Cloud those communities to our south by helping area through Elk River, Anoka and Coon maintain their accessibility to the rest of the Rapids. metro area:' • ■