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CASE #3 REPORT ON PROPOSED COUNTY ROAD #116 IMPROVEMENT PROJECT By: Steven J. Jankowski, City Engineer Background: Both the cities of Ramsey and Anoka are supportive of the signalization of County Road #116 and the Dysprosium/Thurston intersection. At a meeting with the City of Anoka held on October 21 st, it was felt beneficial to arrange a meeting with the cities of Anoka and Ramsey and Anoka County to discuss the possibility of improving the County Road #116 corridor as a whole. Such a meeting was held with the Anoka County Engineer on November 4, 1998, to discuss this issue. Jon Olson and Roger Butler were in attendance for Anoka County, Craig Gray, Anoka City Engineer represented Anoka, while I represented the City of Ramsey. The following points were identified at this meeting: The intersection of County Road #116 and Thurston/Dysprosium will not be signalized without the addition of turn lanes. This will cause the cost of such a project to be in the range of $400,000 plus right-of-way costs. The City of Anoka was uncertain of whether they wished to expedite the signalization. However, they were unaware that the County's current expenditures may allow for only one or two signals per year; and last year this intersection ranked last out of 32 intersections which met warrants for lights. Mr. Gray will relay this to City of Anoka officials. The potential of upgrading an entire corridor of County Road #116 was addressed. The segment of most importance was from Trunk Highway #47 to County Road #57. This segment provides service to both the City of Ramsey's Business Park 95 and the City of Anoka's Enterprise Park. Ramsey suggested that a four-lane corridor with divided median would be desirable. County Engineer Jon Olson concurred that four lanes would be desirable and that he would not be opposed to that concept. However, he cautioned that the current traffic volumes would not warrant four lanes and further, he suggested that there would likely be opposition to a four-lane highway. Mr. Olson suggested that such a project would cost in the range of $2.5 million, plus fight-of-way acquisition costs. Mr. Olson suggested that to proceed further toward this goal, a corridor study should be conducted. Similar to the Trunk Highway #47 corridor which ultimately resulted in the current Trunk Highway #47 STP project, this corridor study would identify access locations, full movement intersections, fight turn only accesses, and project traffic volumes. Mr. Olson indicated that similar projects have generated controversy in the past, and a public involvement process would need to be a part of this study. The cost of such a study was estimated to be in the range of $30,000 and the County has a policy of participating 50 percent. The remainder would need to come from Ramsey and Anoka on some mutually agreeable basis. Mr. Olson commented that the connection of McKinley Street would be an alternative route to County Road #116, and its connection between Ramsey and Anoka would be mutually favorable to both the County Road #116 and McKinley corridors.