Minutes - Public Works Committee - 11/16/2004

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Motion carried. Voting Yes: Chairperson Zitnn1erman, Councilmember Cook and Mayor Gamec. Voting No: None. Absent: Councilmember Elvig. Case #2: Consider Highway 10 Median Closures City Engineer Jankowski indicated MnDOT has released plans for the 2005 overlay projects. As a part of this work MnDOT would like to remove several of the more problematic median openings. He reviewed the following medians that have been proposed for closure along with the number of traffic accidents that have taken placed within a three year period between January I, 2000 and December 31, 2002: . Tungsten Street - 4 traffic accidents . Feldspar Street - 7 traffic accidents . Llama Street - 2 traffic accidents . Midway between Traprock Street and Armstrong Boulevard - 1 traffic acCident . The crossing west of Beatty Street - 0 traffic accidents . The crossing at the west end of the weigh station - 0 traffic accidents City Engineer Jankowski explained MnDOT has requested City support for these median closures and the issue was presented to the Public Works Committee at the June 15,2004 meeting. The Committee and Council directed that an open house on the proposed median closures be held to solicit public input. An open house was held on Thursday, September 23, 2004 at Fire Station No 1 to address this directive. Two representatives from MnDOT were in attendance along with the City Engineer and the Assistant Director of Public Works. Twentyfour citizens attended the open house and two have submitted written comments expressing opposition to the closure oftwo of the six medians, Feldspar Street and the median on the west end of the weigh station. In addition a phone call was received from Mr. Chad Lundquist who recently purchased the property on the southwest comer of Highway 10 and Llama Street. Mr. Lundquist has expressed verbally his opposition to the closing of this median. Of the six medians originally proposed for closure, there are two they have not received any opposition on. He indicated Beth Neuendorf of MnDOT is here to address some of the concerns for the median closures that have been proposed. Beth Neuendorf of MnDOT stated as part oftheir mill and overlay project MnDOT wanted to look at some of the safety problems in the area of Highway to, which was identified as high priority, and is slated to be converted to a freeway. The medians proposed for closure have a lot of traffic and accidents. These closures are part of an interim measure. There is no funding set aside for the freeway conversion in the 20 year plan, and in the interim MnDOT would like to improve safety on Highway 10. Access management and closing some ofthese medians is part of that process. Two of the medians are in the city of Anoka, for which the city of Anoka has forwarded MnDOT a resolution of agreement. She stated to give the Committee an idea of some of the traffic volumes on Highway to, 43,000 is the average daily traffic, and the projection for 2020 is roughly 77,000. This estimate does not include the RTC project, which is expected to add an additional 30,000 trips. Public Works Committee/November 16,2004 Page 4 of 12