No roundabout at highways 210 and 61

The idea of a roundabout is no longer under consideration for the intersection of Minnesota Highway 210 and Carlton County Road 61, county engineer JinYeene Neumann said Monday at the board of commissioners meeting.

Neumann presented information about the application for a Transportation Economic Development program grant application for the intersection. The board approved it.

The engineers have designed the strip with

J turns for traffic control instead of a roundabout. Neumann said that there isn’t enough traffic volume to call for a roundabout.

“That will make it a safer intersection,” she told the board. “That reduces the 90-degree turns.”

According to the project summary, Highway 210 has an average daily traffic count of 7,600 vehicles a day, while County Road 61 carries 2,800 vehicles a day.

The intersection is adjacent to a commercial area along 210 where there is potential for growth and additional traffic generation. In 2018 a Kwik Trip convenience store was built on the north side of the intersection, creating a substantial increase in traffic volume coming off of Interstate 35 and increasing the turning movements both entering and exiting 210 at that intersection. In 2019 the Sweetly Kismet Candy Store opened, which shares the east entrance to Kwik Trip. This year, the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation opened a transit garage just east of the intersection. Carlton County plans to build a jail and courts facility.

The increase in traffic at what has been deemed a “high-risk intersection” needs to be addressed, Neumann said. Creating J-turns controls traffic flow by eliminating dangerous road crossings.

The project would use existing right-of-ways.

The grant amount requested is $400,000, with construction scheduled to start in 2023. The county will be expected to contribute 30 percent of the project cost, or $120,000.