12/16/97 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

CASE #I UPDATE ON T.H. g47 PROJECTS By: Steve Jankowski, City Engineer Background: At the November 18, 1997 Road & Bridge Committee meeting, it was directed that a meeting be scheduled with MnDOT to discuss several issues relating to the two grant projects which the City has pending involving improvements on T.H. g47. This meeting was held on December 10, 1997 with Mayor Gamec, Councilperson Haas Steffen, and myself meeting with our engineering consultant and six MnDOT representatives. The following issues were clarified: 1) The Local Initiative project has been transferred by MnDOT from FY 1998 to FY 1999. This gives the City the opportunity to let a construction contract after the June 30, 1998 deadline if it so chooses. 2) The mill and overlay project which was previously reported as being scheduled for Spring 1999 has been pushed back to Spring 2000. 3) The cost of the mill and overlay project is estimated to be $500,000 with roughly $100,000 attributable to that portion which would be covered by the STP project. A determination has not been made as to whether MnDOT would apply the $100,000 savings to the STP project. 4) Access control was discussed at length. The STP project would create four full movement intersections at 142nd Avenue, C.S.A.H. #5/Xkimo Street, 149th Avenue, and 153rd Avenue. The Cobalt/149th Lane intersection would have a raised median prohibiting left turns. The 152nd Avenue intersection would remain in its existing status but would be eliminated when another outlet for the neighborhood could be provided to the west. Three existing residences would continue to have direct access to the highway after the STP project. Finally, MnDOT agreed to continue to work with the City on the access issues associated with the undeveloped parcels relative to the STP project. Discussion: At the present time, a critical decision needs to be made on whether to proceed with the Local Initiative project. At least two options are possible. First, MnDOT is agreeable to applying the $432,000 MnDOT share of the Local Initiative moneys to the STP project. A significant disadvantage to this is that the construction will be delayed from 1998 until the STP project is scheduled for construction, most likely the spring of 2000. Alternatively, MnDOT is also agreeable to allowing only the MnDOT-funded half of the Local Initiative project to be constructed in 1998 providing that all rights of access be obtained by the City for both sides of the highway from 142nd Avenue to Xkimo Street. This proposal includes closing the Amoco access and denying any additional accesses entirely. Also, six Flintwood Hills 3rd Addition properties on the west side of T.H. #47 are contiguous to the highway, and their access fight to the highway must be resolved. MnDOT has indicated they are willing to contribute financially to this right-of-access acquisition and will research further the amount of their participation. I have asked SRF to prepare a revised cost estimate showing the financial obligations of the City if this option were to be chosen. This estimate is not available at the time of this writing but will