These days construction crews are putting up sound barriers next to the busy highway.
MnDOT’s Kent Barnard visited the location recently and explained what is going on.
“We’ve been working on noise walls along the west side of highway 10 through most of the winter,” Barnard said. “We did knock off for a couple weeks with the extreme cold weather. We have three locations where we’re building noise walls as part of this third lane project in Coon Rapids.”
The exact work zone is between Round Lake Boulevard and Creek Meadow Drive. There is plenty of construction equipment on site, including a giant crane and steel beams that stick up into the sky.
Third lane reduces traffic
Barnard is optimistic the project will finish soon.
“Now with the weather the way it’s been I would not be surprised if we don’t see construction starting up in late March, early April,” Barnard said. “We’ll be out on the roadways. At this point there are no delays and we should be able to wrap this project up in June.”
The extra lane on US 10 has been a gift to drivers who use this east-west concrete ribbon. Traffic now flows smoothly most of the time.
“So far we’ve got nothing but thumbs up and atta boys for doing this work and getting that third lane built,” Barnard said. “This was a notorious bottleneck as anybody that’s driven this stretch of roadway knows and we’ve taken care of that bottleneck.”
Construction on the highway 10 lane expansion began in 2024. For more info go to the MnDOT web page.
