MnDOT agrees to safety audit of 169/225th Avenue

Neighbors who live off intersection of 225th and Highway 169 seek improvements after fatal Feb. 14 crash

by Jim Boyle

Editor

The intersection of 225th Avenue and Highway 169 — the site of 18 crashes in the last 10 years including a fatal one that took the life of an 8-year-old Elk River boy on Feb. 14 — will be the topic of a Minnesota Department of Transportation safety audit.

This stretch of Highway 169 is north of the state’s current three-year, $157 million Corridors of Commerce project that is wrapping up this year and south of the $42 million, two-year project in Zimmerman that will start next year that was spearheaded by Sherburne County to remove what will be the last stoplight between Rogers on Highway 101 and in Mille Lacs on Highway 169.

The long-term vision for this stretch of highway is for an interchange at 221st and systems of frontage and backage roads that are not expected to be sought until current land uses like gravel mining and the landfilling in Elk River have been exhausted.

The idea is to see if there are any treatments that could be done in advance of any major projects in the next year or two or three to make it safer, according to Mike Ginnaty, a District 3 Engineer for MnDOT. That was the conclusion after meetings involving neighbors who live off of 225th Avenue and MnDOT officials in mid-March and some of the same residents who met with members of the Elk River City Council during a March 18 council work session.

Melanie Curtis — who lives in the 10900 block of 235th Avenue NW in a neighborhood filled with about 20 families who use 225th as their primary access point to Highway 169 — got the ball rolling early last month with the city of Elk River when she sent an email to the city in care of City Administrator Cal Portner. That email was also copied to Sherburne County in care of Sherburne County Public Works Director Andrew Witter, and Geoff Dowty of the Sherburne County Sheriff’s Department and the Safe Roads Coalition; MnDOT in care of Transportation Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger and Ginnaty. Portner forwarded the email along to members of the Elk River City Council.

“As a parent with a young driver, I have been concerned about the safety of this intersection for years,” Curtis stated. “I am writing to you now because, on February 14th, an 8-year-old child tragically lost his life in a motor vehicle accident at this intersection. As a result, the child’s family is irrevocably scarred. This tragedy underscores the need for a safety study on this corridor.”

Femrite shares some history on planning

Justin Femrite, Elk River’s public works director, shared some of the history of 225th Avenue at the March 18 work session. He said 225th Avenue is a city street that leads into the northern city limits of Elk River and Livonia Township. He also said it serves a couple gravel mining operations and ultimately it lines up with the entrance to the Waste Management facility on the west side of Highway 169.

“Following the fatal, we did review and got the accident report from MnDOT, and we understand that MnDOT has had some additional correspondence and communication surrounding their analysis out in that area,” he said. “I just want to step through some of the historic planning that we have done out there, some of the limitations of it and time lines around potential future ultimate improvements.”

He took council members and the audience in attendance back to the 2008 and 2012 studies that included both an Environmental Assessment Worksheet and geometric alignment that was done from the whole 169 corridor up to Zimmerman and County Road 4.

“That called for improvements to (169) and included the interchange in Zimmerman,” he said. “That particular study located and called for ultimate improvements along the Highway 169 to go to a freeway style with all at-grade intersection points eliminated, going from access controls to interchanges. The future interchange location in the northern part of Elk River (would be) south of 225th and closer to 221st Avenue, which would then also include and require connections for frontage or backage road style improvements through the general mining area. Once fully mined and fully reclaimed, that local system would get constructed with a future interchange at 221st with frontage and backage road connections being part of that. That’s the long-term vision for the corridor.”

Femrite said MnDOT has looked at it, recognizing those improvements, albeit somewhat costly, are on the horizon into the future, but land uses are not ready to accept frontage/backage road systems.

“MnDOT has further reviewed as of March 13 with communications with some of the concerned parties and committed to pursue a safety audit of those connections as a starting point.”

Ginnaty confirmed that for the Star News on April 2. He met with some families on or about March 13, he said.

Safety audits are done by a traffic engineering group that comes in with some fresh eyes to look at things. This group would look to see if there’s something that could be done in the next year, or two or three.

“I know I’m talking in years here,” Ginnaty said. “It’s not that we don’t care, but there’s a lot of people that have been looking at this, including the State Patrol, that I have had conversations with. I didn’t suggest a ‘study’ without having any hope of any kind of funding in the future though. That’s not really a good thing either.

“It’s not that I’m opposed to doing a study, but I don’t just want to say, ‘Do a study’ ... and then this study sits on the shelf and nothing ever comes. That’s not good.”

There are treatments that were mentioned at the work session like acceleration lanes and J-turns, and each come with pros and cons and one can complicate the other, Ginnaty said.

“We want to do something that we think would help, not just to do something and say we’re doing something,” Ginnaty said.

Elk River Mayor John Dietz asked what could be done to move improvements up on MnDOT’s priority list, but it was noted the economics of the improvements that have been included in long-range planning documents would be hard to speed up at this point.

“It’s really hard to say when the (gravel mining and landfill) uses would be complete and ready for those improvements,” Femrite said.

Council Member Cory Grupa asked about what could be done in the meantime.

“That’s part of the safety audit that could be done in the meantime,” Femrite said, also noting that’s within the purview of this collective body to support MnDOT and to push for and want more funding and anything that they can do to improve the safety on that corridor.

‘Traffic is just going to go faster and faster’

“Let’s face it,” Dietz said. “As we get rid of the signals in Elk River, that traffic is just going to go faster and faster. Zimmerman is going to get their signal taken out ... and there will be no reason to stop from Rogers to Onamia.”

Femrite said there was a similar realization last year when the city of Elk River was talking about Corridors of Commerce funding for Highway 10 from 101 down to the city of Ramsey.

“All of those stop lights have gone out and those gaps have gone away and there is ever increasing speed and limited gaps to get out into traffic,” Femrite said. “So there’s safety concerns down there as well.”

“We have watched the state investment migrate away from safety and mobility improvements to surface transportation systems.”

Neighborhood, parents of boy speak

Residents spoke positively about acceleration lanes in terms of how they help now and how the addition of one more could help even more.

There was also concern expressed about the slope of 225th.

“We’ve all gone through stop lights because the road was icy,” one resident said. “With this you’re going to go into 70 mile per hour (traffic) and driver’s side impact. The decline doesn’t give you enough forgiveness if the driving conditions are different than you’re anticipating. That’s what concerns me about that intersection.”

Ben Fisher and Erin Cooney, whose son Joseph Fisher killed in the Feb. 14 crash, both spoke. Fisher spoke about his concern for the location of Waste Management’s exit.

“There’s plenty of room up and down the highway,” he said. “I don’t know what their future plans are. If any overpasses are put in, is that something they can change their outlook on?”

He also expressed concern for the folks with trailers coming to and from ERX Motor Park.

Dietz said the Elk River Landfill will be full by 2030, and maybe even sooner given what’s taking place in Hennepin County.

“I believe Waste Management is negotiating with Livonia Township, which is on the other side of our landfill,” Dietz said. “So I don’t know why they would even consider changing it.”

Council Member Matt Westgaard said the question raises a good point and would make for a good question to pose to Waste Management about their plans for ingress and egress to Livonia Township.

Another resident talked about how trucks stack up in the morning before the landfill opens.

Cooney, Joseph Fisher’s mother, said she wasn’t sure what to say, but she said she appreciated everyone looking at this intersection and the safety concerns.

“Every single time you go to that intersection there is going to be a different situation to handle, whether there are people behind you, trucks behind you, whether trucks are ahead of you, people in the median, people coming at you 80 miles an hour,” she said.

“There’s always a different situation, and there’s so many things happening there. I know there’s long-term plans. And I love that everyone’s bringing their talents together to create something that is safe. I do think the acceleration lane would help going north if that’s a short-term thing to get some of those trucks to go north in an acceleration lane instead of crossing all that traffic.”

She also added that the hill is a huge concern when there’s no break in traffic and people get lined up on it.

Dietz took time to express his council’s care and concern for the family.

“First of all we’re very sorry for your loss, and I know that the whole St. Andrew’s community is still in mourning for you and your family, “ he said. “I can’t imagine what you’re going through and we’re very sorry that this happened.”

Dietz said he gives the neighborhood a lot of credit for reaching out to MnDOT, and for MnDOT taking the time to meet with them.

“I think it shows that they’re concerned,” Dietz said, noting both their visit and willingness to do a safety audit.

“It’s going to be baby steps,” he said. “We’re not going to achieve this overnight. This is going to be a long haul thing.

“I think we hear what you’re saying. I think we all in this room want to do something, and with Justin’s leadership we will try to take some baby steps. We can take the first step to see if we can do something.”