5.6. SR 12-13-1999 - Laserfiche WebLink

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ITEM 5.6. . Howard R. Green Company CONSULTING ENGINEERS December 9, 1999 File: 808220J-0325 Honorable Mayor and City Council City of Elk River 13065 Orono Parkway Elk River, MN 55330 RE: TRUNK HIGHWAY 101 - BRIDGE REPLACEMENT TRUNK HIGHWAY 10/MAINSTREET INTERSECTION IMPROVEMENTS DearCoundlMembern: . Recently, Michele McPherson, Director of Planning, and I were invited to attend a preliminary meeting with Mn/DOT to discuss the upcoming bridge replacement they have scheduled for Trunk Highway 101. Mn/DOT is planning to remove and totally reconstruct the northbound bridge across the Mississippi River on Trunk Highway 101. This bridge was not replaced when the highway was upgraded to four lanes a number of years ago. Mn/DOT antidpates this project will begin sometime in late 2001 and will continueto the end of 2002. These preliminary meetings were to discuss traffic issues that will result from the impact of the bridge construction. Mn/DOT's thoughts right now are to convert the southbound TH 101 bridge to carry three lanes of traffic. They are still considering whether or not it would be possible to use movable barriers to provide two lanes of traffic in the direction of the rush hour traffic. Mn/DOT is also considering many other options to try and lessen the impact, such as signed detours as far away as 1-94 to direct traffic to other crossings of the Mississippi River. They will also provide some type of media/public relations blitz to inform the motoring public of alternative routes. No matter what the final outcome is for the plan to provide for traffic control during construction, it is safe to assume that traffic in and around the construction area will be severely impacted. One issue I have discussed briefly with Tom Dumont, Assistant District 3 Traffic Engineer, is some type of improvement to the TH 10/Main Street intersection prior to the TH 101 bridge replacement project. As the City Coundl is aware, this intersection is quite congested in both the A.M. and P.M. peak hours. A number of years ago, the City Coundl considered several conceptual layouts for improvements for this intersection but at that time elected not to proceed with any of them. More recently, the City Coundl has briefly discussed the potential improvement of this intersection. My discussion with Tom Dumont centered around whether or not Mn/DOT would be willing to partidpate in a cooperative agreement project to try to improve the geometrics and signalization at this intersection. This would be in anticipation of numerous local drivers who will likely find and use this route as an alternative to TH 101, even though it would not be a formal detour for the 101 bridge replacement project. Mr. Dumont indicated that Mn/DOT would be very interested in looking at alternatives for the TH 10/Main Street intersection. . O:\PROJ\808220J\ltr 808220.0901.dec99.doc 1326 Energy Park Drive . St. Paul, MN 55108 . 651/644-4389 fax 651/644-9446 toll free 888/368-4389