Rural Minnesota Freight Freeway to Get Face-Carry
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A 90-year-old undivided two-lane freight hall is getting a $10 million face-lift in a Minnesota agricultural belt the place truckers, commuters and farmers address excessive crash charges and congestion.
Carver County is receiving a U.S. Division of Transportation grant to enhance freight mobility and security alongside U.S. Route 212 that can reconfigure intersections in areas with excessive crash charges and allow truckers to hold items extra effectively.
A significant route between rural southwest Minnesota and the Twin Cities, U.S. 212 spans 161 miles in Minnesota and has been designated a essential rural freight hall by the state division of transportation. It supplies a significant freight connection for 22,000 sq. miles of rural Minnesota and South Dakota.
Gayle Degler, commissioner of Carver County, advised Transport Matters the grant will assist the county (35 miles southwest of Minneapolis) full the final five-mile part of U.S. 212 inside about two years.
Funding will go towards right-of-way acquisitions, soil corrections and preserving some historic landmarks. The roadway was a part of the transcontinental Yellowstone Path established within the heyday of the Mannequin T.
In line with a 2019 freight mobility and security challenge report by Carver County, freight bottlenecks alongside U.S. 212 negatively impacted 65 freight turbines and resulted in a 17% improve in operational prices. On the identical time, 72% of county residents who commute are caught in visitors congestion.
Degler
Carver County officers decided that the typical journey size is 61 miles for private customers and 91 miles for freight visitors.
Not solely supporting interstate freight visitors, U.S. 212 is vital for intrastate truck shipments with Carver County and 7 different counties every accounting for five% of freight visitors on the hall.
The federal Infrastructure for Rebuilding America grant awarded Sept. 15 will remediate present questions of safety arising from slender lanes and shoulders, restricted flip lanes, conflicts with rural farm tools, drawback intersections and visitors points involving drivers having to merge from a four-lane divided freeway right into a two-lane undivided one.
The DOT famous that previously 5 years, three fatalities occurred at one intersection alongside U.S. 212 within the county, and the challenge space has a higher-than-average crash fee.
“Many crashes have been freight-related or roadway departure crashes that could possibly be averted by the roadway growth, addition of rumble strips and lowered battle intersections,” DOT said, including {that a} visitors research revealed that “an amazing majority of the hall congestion is brought on by crashes, which impacts effectivity of freight motion” for main native freight turbines.
New security options will embody lowered battle intersections and a grade-separated interchange. A bridge might be constructed close to the situation of Bongards Dairy, a farmer-owned co-op established in 1908 in Chanhassen that’s recognized for its cheeses.
“Bongards is a big dairy. They’ve plenty of vans going out and in,” Degler mentioned, explaining how the bridge is required to keep away from making a harmful intersection for the dairy and native farmers driving with combines and wagons.
“You don’t wish to cross a four-lane freeway with a mix,” he mentioned. “So we’re making a bridge to make it rather a lot safer for agricultural automobiles and agricultural tools,” he added, saying the challenge is “going to make it safer for everyone.”
