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More lanes on the Crosstown = more lanes on
Excess
The I-35W megaproject of the early 1990s rears its ugly head once
again ...
Overhaul for Crosstown/I-35W junction revived
published 11.07.03
online at http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/4198539.htm
by Laurie Blake
Star Tribune
Drivers, be patient. A fix for the metro area's most notorious
freeway bottleneck is nearer to reality.
After the Legislature abruptly halted the start of a new interchange
at Crosstown Hwy. 62 and Interstate Hwy. 35W, a new construction
plan is on the table. Work initially was to start in late 2001,
but legislators discovered that the design would not provide enough
new road capacity and that traffic would be disrupted for years.
The revisions, presented Thursday by the Minnesota Department
of Transportation (MnDot) to an advisory group, include the following:
- The new design will provide enough capacity to keep traffic
flowing through the interchange for 20 years. (This was tested
by computer traffic simulations.) Instead of one-lane connections
between the Crosstown and northbound I-35W, the design provides
two lanes.
- Construction delays in any one segment would be no longer than
eight weeks. The plan includes more bridges so that new ones can
be built before old ones are torn down.
- The new design would cost an estimated $176 million, plus $5
million to $6 million for property acquisition, up from $115 million.
The additional money would pay for more lanes, more bridges and
more right-of-way.
- Eighteen additional properties in Minneapolis and Richfield
would be needed for the project. Peters Billiards, at 6150 Lyndale
Av. S. in Minneapolis, is the only business identified for purchase.
Richfield Square Apartments in Richfield also is among the 18
properties needed.
- Work is scheduled to begin in spring 2006.
"I think it's a vast improvement with little additional [property]
takings," said former state Sen. Roy Terwilliger of Edina,
who is chairman of the advisory group. Two years ago he sponsored
the legislation that sent MnDOT back to try again. The draft construction
plan will be forwarded to Minneapolis and Richfield in January for
public review.
The Crosstown and I-35W intertwine in a common section of concrete
on the border of Richfield and Minneapolis. The interchange carries
more than 100,000 vehicles a day headed to downtown Minneapolis,
the Mall of America, Southdale, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport, the Bloomington strip and points south.
Because of the volume of vehicles weaving from one freeway to
the other, the interchange has one of the highest accident rates
in the metro area.
The revised design, like the earlier one, separates the two freeways,
their lanes running side by side. I-35W will have three through
lanes in each direction; the Crosstown will have two in each direction.
The bigger interchange will be finished in 2009, years ahead of
corresponding lane additions on the Crosstown and I-35W. Until a
fifth lane is added to I-35W on the north and a third lane is added
to the Crosstown -- now scheduled for sometime after 2015 -- drivers
will funnel from the interchange into congestion on the edges.
The dominos
A computer model of traffic behavior indicates that the expanded
interchange will accommodate traffic until 2030. It also provides
a lesson in the domino effect of congestion and the difficulty of
easing it by expanding roads, said Tom O'Keefe, west area manager
for MnDOT.
For example, a single-lane connection from eastbound Crosstown
to northbound I-35W would have resulted in traffic backing up on
the Crosstown just as it does today, O'Keefe said.
Adding a second lane to take traffic from east Crosstown to north
I-35W eliminates the backups on the Crosstown, but the extra movement
of traffic from the Crosstown creates congestion on north I-35W
near Diamond Lake Road.
That, in O'Keefe's opinion, is a better place for it. New high-speed
bus service and high-occupancy toll lanes are being considered for
I-35W, both of which could help ease the congestion on I-35W. On
the Crosstown, those options are not available, he said.
However, until a fifth lane is added to I-35W heading toward downtown,
five lanes coming out of the new interchange will drop to four lanes
at 46th Street, and that will cause delays, said John Griffith,
director of the interchange project for MnDOT.
The same problem will present itself on the westbound Crosstown
where three lanes coming out of the interchange will funnel to two
lanes at Penn Avenue.
MnDOT is studying the best way to provide transitions at these
spots until lanes are added. It also is studying how to move traffic
safely from Portland Avenue to westbound Crosstown. There is only
about 300 feet to make the connection. One possibility: routing
traffic east on an unusual U-shaped ramp that would curve back to
the westbound lanes.
Extending the fifth lane on 35W toward downtown is now scheduled
for 2015 or later, but it's being considered for potential advancement
if new funding is available, O'Keefe said. (The addition of a third
lane in each direction on the Crosstown also is more than 10 years
away. So far, it has not been considered for advancement.)
Even if northbound I-35W is widened to five lanes, the junction
of I-35W and I-94 near downtown Minneapolis will remain jammed.
MnDOT is not even discussing improvements there, and that means
that congestion is likely to filter back through south Minneapolis
from that constriction.
Said O'Keefe: "You can't build your way totally out of congestion."
-- Laurie Blake is at lblake@startribune.com.
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