Scaling down Highway 169 project may free up congestion ASAP

By Shannon Fiecke

John Danio doesn't even drive Highway 169 regularly – his wife does – but he's still fed up with what he calls the "unpredictable bottleneck," and he has no hope the state will fix it anytime soon.

His wife often leaves 20 to 30 minutes early to ensure she gets to work in Minnetonka on time.

Danio works from a home office in Shakopee's Southbridge area, minutes from the highway he has given up using.

"When I go to the airport, I drive up (Highway) 13 to cross the river in Dakota County, because I can't trust 169," he said. "I just stopped taking it. I refuse to take it anymore."

Construction of a new Bloomington Ferry Bridge and the rerouting Highway 169 is what prompted the Southbridge development, but since the highway has reached peak capacity during rush hour, the western corridor has become a headache for inhabitants of Scott County. And the root of their headache doesn't even lie in Scott County, but at Highway 169's signalized interchange with Interstate 494, in Eden Prairie.

Some assumed passage of a historic $6.8 billion transportation funding package during the state legislative session would speed an expensive plan to remove the stoplights at the intersection of Interstate 494 and Highway 169, essentially turning the highway into the freeway. However, new transportation dollars are to be shared with cities and counties and the rest must cover bridge repair, highway bonds, and other requirements set by legislators before they can be used for congestion relief.

Even with new funding and a start date slated for 2016 (it was to have begun by now, but the state put it off due to cost overruns on projects and a delay in federal funds), the interchange project's $120 million price tag could push it out of the state's 10-year plan unless its scope is reduced. Cheaper ideas are being floated that would likely involve scrapping proposed flyover ramps and eliminating movement from eastbound Interstate 494 to northbound Highway 169.

In light of the recent transportation bill and policy changes, the state is in a planning cycle, reevaluating what projects to do and when.

With not nearly enough funds to fix all of the state's woes, transportation officials have put a new focus on low-cost, high-impact improvements, doing more total good than a few high-priced projects. 

Even if its scope is reduced, tackling the 169/494 interchange would still mean megabucks.

As it reprioritizes statewide plans, the transportation department is working this summer on revamping the interchange design. Meanwhile, state legislators and leaders up and down Highway 169 are forming a coalition to push for improvements along the corridor from the metro to Mankato.

Following the kickoff meeting last Thursday, Sen. Terri Bonoff, DFL- Minnetonka, noted that communities north of Interstate 494 deal with their own "parking lot" on Highway 169, with backup from Interstate 394 to Interstate 694 during rush hour.

Bonoff said she's been told the state is planning a study for this area. (The state official handling this issue was unavailable for comment.) A previous management plan was done for the south metro through Mankato. 

Lobbyists said now is the opportune time to seek federal dollars for the corridor, with the state's Eighth District Congressman, Jim Oberstar the leading transportation representative in Washington, D.C. 

Minnesota Department of Transportation Metro District Manager Susan Mulvihill noted in a recent meeting that progress along Highway 169 has been made – with interchanges at Anderson Lakes Parkway and Pioneer Trail in Eden Prairie and in Belle Plaine.  

Signals remain in Jordan, and, more notably, at Highwood Drive (just before Interstate 494), as well as at the frontage roads bordering the interchange itself. Since the interchange was only built with three cloverleaves, it relies on a stoplight to move traffic from eastbound Highway 169 to northbound 169.

The full-scale improvement plan has flyover bridges that keep everyone out of the "looptie loops" and merge lanes and "you'd fly over the whole thing," Rep. Michael Beard, R-Shakopee, recently told a gathering of area business owners. 

The pared down proposal keeps the interchange on a cloverleaf and ramp system, he said.

In an interview, the state's area transportation manager Tom O'Keefe said the full-scope version shown on MnDOT's Web site was last estimated to cost $120 million. MnDOT would like to cut the project cost in half, give or take some, he said.

It's a complicated area, he noted, with lots of access points amongst the freeway and local street systems, and MnDOT is considering whether all the access is necessary. 

Scott County Public Works Director Lezlie Vermillion said she was recently told reducing two movements could bring the project cost down to $90 million.

A movement likely to go, Vermillion said, is eastbound Interstate 494 to northbound Highway 169. She said motorists could easily still head the same direction by using nearby Highway 212. An expensive flyover ramp could be eliminated this way.

One of the state's primary goals is to remove all the signals, O'Keefe said.

MnDOT could easily do that tomorrow without any expensive improvements, Mulvihill acknowledged. Not a great deal bulk of traffic uses the stoplight to head north from eastbound 494, anyway. However, pulling stoplights without making infrastructure improvements would do much damage to the local road system, she said.

Furthermore, cutting off local road access would push more local trips onto the freeway, O'Keefe said.

MnDOT wants to preserve access, although doing so more cheaply might mean creating a more complicated local road network than originally proposed, O'Keefe said.

Local traffic can cross frontage roads at signals on Highway 169, both north and south of the interchange, and also can easily access highway ramps. The Highwood Drive signalized intersection just adds to the backup.

Beard told Shakopee Chamber of Commerce members that the state has better synchronized lights, and "backups that used to be 2 miles long are now 1 mile long, but still a real pain."

He said the long-standing issues with the interchange design stem from a lack of funding as well as the fact that neighboring cities never wanted the freeway to be built or wanted to maintain access to it. The project required municipal consent, and the end result was a design created by committees representing the cities, he said.

"We've got frontage roads on all four corners that access a freeway interchange – how's that working out for us?" Beard said. 

In an interview, Eden Prairie manager Scott Neal didn't dispute the role cities played in the past design of the freeway.

Neal, who recently met with officials from MnDOT and neighboring cities about reducing the project's scope, said everything he's heard so far would still connect the frontage roads somehow under Highway 169.

The cities of Eden Prairie, Bloomington, and Edina also want to pay for a bridge at Washington Avenue to connect the Golden Triangle Business Park with the area south of Highway 494, Neal said.

That plan is still on the table. Doing so in conjunction with the interchange project would lessen the cost of the bridge, he said. 

If the stoplights at the intersection of Highway 169 and Interstate 494 are indeed eventually removed, it won't be a total panacea for Scott County, since the Bloomington Ferry Bridge has reached capacity during the morning.

The bridge was built with room for expansion, Vermillion said. But without upgrading or widening even on MnDOT's 20-year wish list, John Danio can still keep dreaming for the day when Highway 169 really is a freeway.

Shannon Fiecke is a staff writer for the Shakopee Valley News. She can be reached at sfiecke@swpub.com.