BLAINE, Minn. — (June 9, 2017) — After two years of working to secure state funding to fix one of the worst roads in the city Blaine leaders were happy to see the reconstruction of 105th Avenue included in the bonding bill passed late last month.
“We are back in the House and the Senate bonding bills and moved through the process,” said Blaine City Manager Clark Arneson.
This is the first project where the city has sought state funding. Normally city roadway repairs are funded 50 percent from the city budget and 50 percent is accessed to property owners along the roadway.
The National Sports Center is the main entity that boarders 105th Avenue, creating a unique problem.
“In this case we cannot access, if you look at 105th from Radisson to 65, it’s almost all state land. So there are only handful private businesses on there, city council felt we are not going to assess a handful of private businesses as if we can’t assess the state. So the pitch to the legislature was a city of Blaine will put up 50 percent, we have 50 percent of the funding, also, it’s a shovel ready project we are ready to go and the other thing is the state has responsibility here not only because of our inability to assess, but buy the way, this is the largest traffic visitor state facility. Four million visitors a year, visit the Sports Center, so the state has responsibility for some participation in that roadway.” said Arneson.
With agreement at the state legislature the project is ready move forward.
“It’s a $7.2 million project, many people have driven 105th today, it’s a two lanes each direction with a super wide center turning area. This will look like a lot of the parkway sections or county sections within the area. It will have two lanes each direction with a center median area with protect left turning movements. Also there will be two roundabouts at the key intersections,” said Arneson.
Safety improvements will also be a key part of the project. The area has heavy pedestrian traffic which was taken into account during the design process.
“The whole premise here is that the current speed limit is 50 miles an hour, and with the roundabout, the engineer’s plan is you have to slow down to 15 to 20 miles per hour as you come into a roundabout, and then on both sides to improve the pedestrian’ s safety, we will have the sidewalks on the outsides of the roundabouts as you approach it. So they are clearly visible if there is pedestrian in the crosswalk,” said Arneson.
The project is shovel ready and will begin later this summer.
“August 20 will be the start of construction. We will do the northerly lanes first, shift traffic to the south, and one of the first things is to peel up the old blacktop, we have to do a new water land, we’ve got some issues in there, and then Centerpoint will be redoing the gas line, and Connexus will be burying the overhead electric line,” said Arneson
The project is scheduled to be completed in time for USA Cup 2018.
After finding success at the state capital city leaders are not ruling out seeking more funding in the future when appropriate.
“The test at the legislature for bonding bill is suppose to have state and regional impact. To me, this does. So in the future, when we have projects and the council agrees, we will probably go back and try to pitch it again,” said Arneson.
