Third roundabout planned for Prior Lake

Prior Lake American

The city of Prior Lake and the Minnesota Department of Transportation are collaborating to finish the reconstruction of the Duluth Avenue and Highway 13 intersection in 2018.

“Ideally, we want to do it in 2018 — which is frankly very fast for a project of this magnitude — but we want to do that to minimize the impact to our businesses in that area,” City Manager Frank Boyles said.

The project was identified in 2015 but put off by the city council at the time. However, with the major roadwork being done to Highway 13 in 2019, staff is prioritizing the project to ease construction traffic which would be diverted to the intersection.

“It seemed like, if we could do this intersection beforehand since the intersection is getting overburdened with traffic, we would be able to provide an effective route around 13,” Boyles said.

The improvements would consist of a traffic signal replacement at Duluth Avenue and Highway 13 as well as a roundabout at Duluth Avenue and Village Lake Drive.

The roundabout would bring the total number of roundabouts in Prior Lake to three, according to a news release.

Though costs would be determined after a plan was drawn up for the intersection and Boyles said the current estimate is about $2.5 million with the Minnesota Department of Transportation contributing about $900,000 of that.

“All of these numbers are not locked down,” Boyles said.

The city could get the remaining funds one of two ways, one of which being special assessments from businesses near the reconstruction and another not involving special assessments.

“We’re investigating both,” Boyles said. “Each have certain time parameters associated with them. As the data becomes more clear, the council would make that ultimate decision.”

Though the goal is to complete the intersection in 2018, there are a number of steps that need to take place such as public hearings, conversations with business owners, drawing up the plans, enter into contracts, determining alternate routes and more.

“This transportation work will serve us well for a couple of decades,” Boyles said. “We’re going to get through this our transportation system will get better and will facilitate the growth of our businesses. If we can take that approach, we’ll do just fine.”