Agenda - Council - 04/22/2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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7550 Sunwood Drive NW • Ramsey, Minnesota 55303 City Hall: 763-427-1410 • Fax: 763-427-5543 www.ci.ramsey.mn.us April 22, 2014 Mr. Douglas W. Fischer, P.E. Division Manager / County Engineer Anoka County Transportation Division 1440 Bunker Lake Boulevard NW Andover, MN 55304 'RE: Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Discretionary Grant Dear Mr. Fischer: The City of Ramsey is very pleased to offer you this letter of support in regard to Anoka County's grant applications for the federal TIGER Discretionary Grant program for both a capital construction request and a planning request for two separate projects on particularly notorious sections of U.S. Highway 10 (US 10) in Anoka County. With regards to the capital construction request, replacing the existing at -grade intersection at US 10 and Anoka County 83 (Armstrong Boulevard) with an interchange and an overpass of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad will improve quality of life, safety, mobility and support existing and future economic growth and development in Anoka County and the City of Ramsey. Eliminating the traffic signal and at -grade crossing of the BNSF Railroad will make it safer and easier for all modes (bus, rail transit, passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, pedestrians and bicyclists) to access the Northstar Commuter Rail Station, employment nodes, medical clinics (including the Veterans Administration's Clinic),schools, homes and service centers located within the interchange influence area. Anoka County proposes to leverage federal funds with more than a 70% match from local, regional, and state resources, and this final "gap" funding will make this shovel ready project a reality. With regards to the planning request, Anoka County and the Minnesota Department of. Transportation (MnDOT) are concluding a new study in the Cities of Anoka and Ramsey on the US 10 corridor. While the US 10/Armstrong interchange is still the number one priority on this highway, there are still similar issues at four other intersections on this corridor. What is exciting to see from this most recent study's findings is that by using state-of-the-art interchange types, access management techniques, and traffic management systems, we now feel that we can achieve 92% of the congestion relief and 95% of the safety benefit while reducing the projected cost from $300 million to $125 million! The planning grant request will take these preliminary findings within the City of Anoka's portion of this corridor and develop preliminary engineering and environmental review documents for the proposed improvements on US 10 at Fairoak Avenue and Thurston Avenue. This is the section of highway where the most recent fatality of a 16-year old girl occurred and was the 12th such fatality on this corridor since 2003. We must take action to eliminate these preventable deaths and the Tiger Planning grant will launch this effort.