Improvements on a deadly stretch of Hwy. 12 begin Wednesday

The Minnesota Department of Transportation on Wednesday will get to work on $3 million safety improvements on a deadly stretch of Hwy. 12 in the west metro.

Motorists will encounter nightly lane closures as crew begin putting in left turn lanes at north and south junctions of County Road 92 in Independence. Flaggers will direct traffic between 7 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. nightly through mid-August.

In September, MnDOT will install a concrete median barrier to prevent crossover crashes between County Roads 6 and 112 through Long Lake and Orono.

Both projects were identified as a way to make travel along the corridor safer according to a 2015 safety audit conducted by the state Department of Transportation.

About 24,000 vehicles a day travel on the narrow stretch of Hwy. 12 from Wayzata to the Hennepin-Wright County line that has earned the nickname "The Corridor of Death."

Over the past five years, 23 people have been killed in crashes on the portion of the highway that runs through western Hennepin County. It has seen three wrecks resulting in death or serious injury for every 100,000 vehicle miles traveled, or nearly twice the rate of 1.57 wrecks on similar two-lane highways in the state, according to the audit.

The turn lanes and concrete median would be the first major safety improvement since December 2014 when a private company donated centerline rumble strips from County Road 6 to the Maple Plain border and west of Maple Plain to County Line Road, the border between Delano and Independence.

Other road work on tap this week:

• Drivers will see new striping on Minnehaha Avenue in Minneapolis. Crews will put in temporary lanes between 31st and Lake streets as construction moves northward. Crews will continue pavement removal between 32nd and Lake streets and begin storm sewer installation between 32nd and 34th streets. The intersection of 32nd Street and Minnehaha Avenue will be closed for the next few weeks. Drivers can cross Minnehaha at 31st or 33rd streets.
• In St. Paul, Randolph Avenue closes Monday between Edgcumbe Road and Lexington Parkway. Drivers also will see lane shifts at Lexington Parkway and Randolph.
• Resurfacing beings Monday on Portland Avenue between Buffalo Street and County Road J. The work will take approximately two weeks to complete.
• Southbound I-35E will have alternating lane closures from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. Monday through Wednesday between Grand Avenue and Randolph Avenue.
• Eastbound 94 will be reduced to two lanes between Snelling Avenue and Lexington Parkway from 7 p.m. Monday to 5 a.m. Tuesday.
• Westbound 94 will be down to two lanes between Hwy. 95 and Radio Drive in Woodbury from 9 p.m. Monday until 4:30 a.m. Tuesday.
• Southbound Hwy. 100 will be a single lane from the Crosstown to 77th Street in Edina from 7 p.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday.