Rep. John Persell
NEWS RELEASE
Minnesota House of Representatives
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Matt Privratsy
(651) 296-6800
November 14, 2013
$10 million Expansion of Highway 2 Announced
ST. PAUL, MN – Governor Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Department of Transportation announced today that ten highway construction projects will receive funding through the state’s new $300 million Corridors of Commerce program. The projects will strengthen Minnesota’s transportation system by adding capacity and improving the movement of freight across the state. Included on the list of projects was the addition of passing lanes to Hwy 2 between Cass Lake and Deer River.
Rep. John Persell (DFL – Bemidji), who voted in favor of the Corridors of Commerce program, is happy to see local roads improved.
“This particular stretch of road is used by a lot of families and businesses in our area,” said Persell. “This project is a good example of the improvements we can make to our roads when we work together to find funding for transportation.”
The project will add three passing lanes to a 38 miles portion of Hwy 2 that will help reduce congestion and improve travel for resident and freight traffic. Work is expected to start in 2014.
Enacted during the 2013 legislative session, the Corridors of Commerce program authorizes trunk highway bonding to be used for projects that are not already in the state’s four-year State Transportation Improvement Program. The legislation established two major goals for the program: to increase highway capacity on segments where bottlenecks occur and to improve the movement of freight and reduce barriers to commerce.
The Highway 2 improvements were one of more than 400 proposals representing more than 100 unique projects that MnDOT received earlier this fall from public sector partners, stakeholders and interested citizens across the state. Agency staff evaluated eligible projects on selection criteria that included project readiness and deliverability, community support, projected return on investment, and safety impacts.
The ten selected projects are:
|
Route
|
Project
|
Preliminary Cost Estimate
(millions)
|
Estimated
Construction Start
|
Project Category
|
|
Hwy 2
|
Passing lanes from Cass Lake to Deer River
|
$8-$10
|
2014
|
Freight Improvement
|
|
I-94
|
Lanes from MN 101 to MN 241
|
$35-$46
|
2014
|
IRC Capacity Development
|
|
Hwy 34
|
Passing lanes from Detroit Lakes to Nevis
|
$11-$15
|
2014
|
Freight Improvement
|
|
Hwy 14
|
4-lane Owatonna to Dodge Center
|
$16-$20
|
2014
|
IRC Capacity Development
|
|
Hwy 610
|
Freeway from CSAH 81 to I-94
|
$103-$131
|
2014
|
Metro Capacity Development
|
|
Hwy 14
|
4-lane N. Mankato to Nicollet
|
$20-$28
|
2015
|
IRC Capacity Development
|
|
Hwy 14
|
Nicollet Bypass (4 lane)
|
$15-$25
|
2015
|
IRC Capacity Development
|
|
I-694
|
Dynamic shoulder lane from Rice to Lexington
|
$35-$42
|
2015
|
Metro Capacity Development
|
|
Hwy 169
|
4-lane from CSAH 15 to 1 mile east of CSAH 7
|
$14-$20
|
2016
|
Freight Improvement
|
|
Hwy 23
|
Passing lanes from Willmar to I-90
|
$13-$19
|
2016
|
Freight Improvement
|
More information about the Corridors of Commerce program can be found at www.mndot.gov/corridorsofcommerce/.
###