After a decade of studying how to fix one of the Twin Cities’ most crash-prone corridors, the Minnesota Department of Transportation has landed on a preferred design for Hwy. 252 — and residents now have only weeks left to tell the agency what they think before the public comment period closes Dec. 22. Three hearings are set for this month in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center and Minneapolis, giving opponents and supporters alike a final formal chance to speak before MnDOT moves toward a final design.
MnDOT will host public meetings on its plans to convert Hwy. 252 into a freeway, according to a report by the Minnesota Star Tribune. The highway runs through Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center, and the agency has spent roughly ten years studying how to remake the corridor, eventually discarding its original 2010 design layouts and developing ten new design concepts in their place. MnDOT has now identified Alternative 5A as its Preferred Alternative, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which describes the option as a four-lane freeway with two lanes and a bus-usable shoulder in each direction between Hwy. 610 and I-694.
The leading design would replace existing stoplights with full interchanges at 66th Avenue, 85th Avenue and Brookdale Drive, add a multimodal crossing at 73rd Avenue without direct highway access, and build pedestrian and bicycle bridges at Humboldt Avenue/81st Avenue and at 70th Avenue. Amber Blanchard, the Hwy. 252 project manager, said the upcoming hearings represent a critical moment for the public. “This is really the opportunity for people to express their opinions,” Blanchard said, per the Star Tribune’s report.
Safety Gains Weighed Against Property Losses
MnDOT says Hwy. 252 averages one death per year, and the agency projects its preferred design would cut crashes resulting in serious injury or death by 25% and reduce crashes overall by 41%, according to figures reported by the Sun Post. The agency also projects the design would shave 3.5 minutes off trip times along the five-mile corridor. Among the ten options studied, the preferred alternative is expected to displace the fewest homes and businesses — six homes and two businesses, by the Star Tribune’s account — though MnDOT’s own property analysis shows a wider range, estimating that potential relocations across all access combinations could run from nine to 39 depending on which combination moves forward…