A groundbreaking ceremony to kick off upcoming road construction on Minnesota State Highway 65 took place.
The event drew some key political figures from Blaine, Anoka County and Minnesota – including Senator Amy Klobuchar.
“A few years ago this project was just words on a page but now we’re gonna see it happen,” Klobuchar said. “From planning, to designing, to securing funding we’re going to bring it from the paper to the pavement.”
Cars going up and down highway 65 were the backdrop for this gathering on a hot afternoon in the North Metro. Blaine mayor Tim Sanders reflected on a phone call he got a few years ago from Klobuchar.
“So I thought this is really good or not good,” Sanders joked. “We’ll find out what’s happening here. Thankfully it was Senator Klobuchar calling personally to let me know that the federal funding was happening for this project. Could not have been more excited.”
Sanders is happy that both Democrats and Republicans came together to get money for the road upgrades.
“We no longer will have this dividing line separating east-west Blaine,” Sanders said. “It now will be a community that will come together with easy east and west connections… This wasn’t a partisan issue. It was a safety issue – an infrastructure issue. I couldn’t be more proud of the team of elected officials that really helped make this happen.”
“Thrive on 65”
The gigantic road project has been dubbed “Thrive on 65.” Highway 65 is a key gateway that links Blaine to areas north and south.
According to Anoka County Commissioner Julie Jeppson, the road has become a high-risk corridor where many crashes happen each year.
“Once completed we will no longer have four of the six most dangerous and deadly intersections in the metro,” Jeppson said. “We will no longer be 10 of the state’s 31 most dangerous intersections and we will no longer have fatal and severe injury crashes at a rate of eight times higher than the state average.”
The delays and gridlock on 65 are a daily hassle for residents and businesses. Klobuchar believes now is the time to fix this so the road can keep up with Blaine’s explosive growth.
“Blaine welcomes seven million visitors a year,” Klobuchar said. “That’s one of my favorite new facts I learned as I was driving here in the car and read this. It is also the 10th largest city in Minnesota and one of the fastest growing in the state. That means more families calling this incredible place home – which by the way has been ranked as one of the top 100 places to live in the country. It also means more cars on the road and we need to make sure infrastructure keeps up with the demand.”
The project will be finished in 2030.
