Local Leaders React to News of Interstate 94 Expansion to St. Michael

With the announcement yesterday of the Interstate 94 widening project’s inclusion in Gov. Mark Dayton’s “Corridors of Commerce” list, a bit of celebration commenced around Wright County and northwestern Hennepin County.

There has, after all, been an organized movement for this project since a small group of city leaders and state legislators, along with business owners and members of the 94 West Chamber of Commerce, met in a small hotel conference room more than five years ago.

To date, the I-94 Coalition has put in hours of work and thousands of miles, including a couple of trips to the nation’s Capitol, to try and get the $40 million needed just to expand the interstate from Rogers’ Highway 101 exit to St. Michael’s Highway 241 ramps.

“A lot of people expended significant amounts of time and energy to secure this project for our area,” said St. Michael City Engineer Steve Bot, who serves as the current coalition chair. “The project will go a long way towards alleviating the financial stress current congestion places on area businesses. Large distributors such as GNP Co., producers of Gold’n Plump Chicken and provider of approximately 900 jobs, and Spee Dee Delivery, a delivery service which operates over 1,200 pieces of equipment to deliver packages daily, have estimated that delays on I-94 cost them both over $200,000 a year.”

Mayor Clint Herbst of Monticello said he hopes its “a first step” of getting the freeway to six lanes all the way to his community, another dozen or so miles to the west.

“We here in Monticello understand the value that this segment adds to the quality of life for all residents that live beyond Rogers,” Herbst said Friday. “Although we will continue to strive for a third lane to Monticello and beyond, we understand and appreciate the significance of this phase.”

Rep. David Fitzsimmons, elected in 2012, said he’s worked the state and federal lines he has in order to help push this along. Thursday, he added, was a huge victory for a state that had initially put funding this stretch of road as far off as 2020.

““I’m thrilled that the Department of Transportation is now recognizing that expanding I-94 between Rogers and St. Michael is critical for the economic and safety needs of our state,” said FitzSimmons. “For months, I have been working with my colleagues in the legislature – as well as with businesses and civic leaders from our community – to put pressure on the Department of Transportation to make I-94 expansion a priority. I’m grateful the administration is finally acknowledging that creating more lanes is the best way to keep our commuter and commercial traffic secure and safe.”

Work will begin with site planning and improvements in 2014 and should last through the 2014 construction season, Bot said. The bulk of preparation will be done on bridges, including the Crow River bridge on the freeway and the County Road 144 span between St. Michael and Rogers that passes above I-94.