Agenda - Economic Development Authority - 10/09/2014

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INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Highway 10 is a Principal Arterial roadway traversing Minnesota from Fargo, ND through St. Cloud, St. Paul, to Prescott, WI and beyond. Highway 10 is a critical multimodal link in the regional transportation network, serving commuters, trucking traffic, growing transit needs and parallel rail traffic along the Mississippi River. Until the mid 2000's, the prior 20 years was a major time of growth in the Twin Cities, especially in the Sherburne and Anoka County region. The growth in the regional population generated increasing demands on Highway 10. In the late 1990's, Highway 10 was realigned between Highway 47 and Interstate 35W (I-35W) with other projects converting the once expressway to freeway. Today, the freeway segment of Highway 10 extends from Main St. in Anoka to I-35W. West of Main St., Highway 10 remains an expressway. The expressway segment of Highway 10 through the Cities of Ramsey and Anoka has been studied numerous times over the past decade. MnDOT, Anoka County and the Cities of Ramsey and Anoka have been planning for a full conversion to a freeway. The projected cost of this freeway vision required over $100 million in property acquisition and $200 million to realign Highway 10 and construct four interchanges for a total cost exceeding $300 million. The compilation and implementation of the previous studies would provide an exceptional trans- portation improvement serving the region for many decades; however, there is not sufficient funding to achieve the freeway vision within the next twenty years. MnDOT, Anoka County and the Cities of Ramsey and Anoka agree they cannot continue to wait for funding to sup- port full conversion of Highway 10 to a freeway facility. The corridor has been plagued by significant congestion and crash issues involving all modes of traffic (e.g., vehicular, trucks, pedestrians, bicyclists and trains). Fur- thermore, in 2012, MnDOT introduced policy direction through their Minnesota State Highway Investment Plan (MnSHIP) and Enhancing Financial Effectiveness (EFE) efforts. The fundamental principal of these strategies are to work with project partners to identify opportunities for innovative investment in order to make the right, most cost effective, choices. This often means finding creative lower cost solutions that provide most of the benefits of the higher cost vision. This new direction is intended to provide a realistic approach to visioning, resulting in sustainable recommendations that can be implemented along with pavement and bridge preservation projects. The Highway 10 corridor through the Cities of Ramsey and Anoka is one of the first corridors in the metro- politan area to re-evaluate improvement options in line with MnSHIP and EFE and consistent with the Met- ropolitan Council's 2030 Transportation Policy Plan (TPP). MnDOT and Anoka County initiated the Highway 10 Access Planning Study to re-examine and identify the ultimate amount of access, types of access and locations of access to Highway 10. Project partners agree a freeway is the proper vision for the Highway 10 corridor. However, considering current overall state and federal funding levels, it will be difficult to achieve the vision of a freeway facility on this portion of Highway 10 in the next 20 years. To reduce crashes and improve mobility issues, it is reasonable and responsible to conduct this study to identify lower -cost, interim measures that can be incrementally implemented to improve safety and operations for all users of the Highway 10 corridor. HIGHWAY 10 ACCESS PLANNING STUDY 9