The Burnsville intersection of Hwy. 13 and County Road 5 is one of the busiest crossings in the state without an interchange.
It's also known for a crash rate well above the state average for similar intersections.
After more than a decade in the making, a fix for the crashes and congestion is in the works. A $40 million plan to turn the intersection into an overpass by 2013 is rolling along and will be on display for public comment Thursday at Burnsville City Hall.
"Woo hoo! We're moving," said Dakota County Commissioner Liz Workman, only half joking. Her advocacy for the project goes back years to her time on the Burnsville City Council. "It needs it."
The project calls for the reconstruction of Hwy. 13, lowering that road and building a County Road 5 overpass, with ramps and one "button hook" loop allowing drivers onto Hwy. 13. Some smaller access points near the intersection would be closed and frontage roads altered to allow for better traffic movement along the sides of the highway, which parallels the Minnesota River through Burnsville and much of Savage.
The intersection with County Road 5 is traveled by 73,400 cars per day, making it the state's third-busiest "at-grade" crossing -- meaning an intersection where the roads intersect at the same level. In terms of congestion, it's behind the Hwy. 169 and County Road 81 intersection in Brooklyn Park and the intersection of County Road 42 and Nicollet Avenue, between Interstates 35W and 35E, also in Burnsville.
From 2005 to 2007, there were 71 crashes at Hwy. 13 and County Road 5, at a rate of 1.32 crashes per million vehicle miles. The statewide average is 0.8 crashes per million vehicle miles.
The spot is also unique for its types of traffic: commuters mix with large industrial trucks, many from the busy Ports of Savage, and people en route to Valleyfair or Mystic Lake Casino.
"From a safety standpoint, it is clearly one of the worst intersections in the metro," said Ryan Peterson, Burnsville's assistant city engineer. "When you have that many cars, you're going to get that many more accidents."
The new circular ramp will wipe out three buildings on the northwest corner of the intersection -- a Valvoline Instant Oil Change, a Taco Bell and a vacant building that used to house Little Saigon Restaurant. Owners of the two existing businesses say they will close, without plans to reopen elsewhere, when construction is imminent.
"We're just waiting for the next steps, whatever they might be," said Barb Schneider, vice president for development at Border Foods, which owns that Taco Bell, along with others on Nicollet Avenue in Burnsville and County Road 42 in Savage. "We'll do our very best to reassign employees."
At nearby Burnsville Motors, just north of the planned loop, co-owner Jeff Flanagan is excited about the fix.
Attracting more business
"It's absolutely needed. This is a very high traffic area," he said. "It should open up a lot of opportunities for businesses coming into the area."
That's exactly what Burnsville wants.
City planners have long dreamed of redeveloping the area known as the Minnesota River Quadrant, west of Interstate 35W between Hwy. 13 and the Minnesota River.
Much of the area is currently unreachable or industrial, including a quarry.
"This would be one of our first steps in getting access to the Minnesota River Quadrant, at least from the south," Peterson said.
But the main goal is to keep traffic moving.
The new intersection will come on the heels of another overpass project farther west at Hwy. 101 in Savage.
Amy Barnett, the Savage city spokeswoman, said, "It's going to eliminate one of the bottlenecks in that corridor and hopefully traffic will flow more smoothly."
Katie Humphrey • 952-882-9056