There is more going on than meets the eye with Hwy. 100 lane closures

Tom Johnson understands roads and bridges in Minnesota wear out and need to be fixed.

Johnson, a 30-year resident of St. Louis Park, has seen a lot of construction this summer on Interstate 394, Interstate 94, Interstate 494 and Minnetonka Boulevard, roads he uses several times a week.

“I get it,” he told the Drive. “I actually like to see construction work, big trucks and promise of improvement. It will be great when it’s all done and forgotten.”

What is infuriating for Johnson, and probably other motorists, too, is that lanes on Hwy. 100 are blocked off without any tangible signs of work happening.

In the past week, traffic snarls have formed on Hwy. 100 in Edina where the Minnesota Department of Transportation has the left lane closed in both directions between Benton Avenue and about W. 70th Street.

The lane closures are unrelated to a bridge project just up the road where MnDOT is rebuilding the 50th Street overpass.

Johnson has not seen any pavement ripped up or repaired anywhere in the 2-mile area where the lanes have been coned off.

Curious to know the reason, Johnson turned to Mn511, MnDOT’s traffic and construction information page hoping to get an answer.

No luck there. The site simply tells drivers to “look for construction because the roadway is reduced to two lanes.”

Along with warning drivers to expect delays of up to 5 minutes, “this is a hard closure and will be up 24/7″ the early morning hours of Sept. 4,“ the posting continues.

Here is what is going on: It’s out with old overhead signs and in with new signs, said Kent Barnard, a MnDOT spokesman. And a lot of that work takes place during the overnight hours when traffic is much lighter.

Many signs are attached to the concrete median separating northbound and southbound traffic. The barrier is slightly wider at those points to accommodate the footings and support the signs, Barnard said.

At the same time, crews will shave down sections of the median where poles are removed so the entire divider will have a uniform thickness, Barnard said.

“People need to realize that it is cost- and time-prohibitive to set up and take down lane closures every day,” Barnard said. “They will encounter times when there may not be work.”

Barnard added that just because workers are not physically present, it doesn’t mean there is nothing happening, both on Hwy. 100 and other construction zones.

Come September, Lowry Avenue in north Minneapolis will have a new look. The road will be restriped. Instead of having two driving lanes in each direction, the new configuration will feature one driving lane in each direction with a shared center turn lane.

Hennepin County, which owns the road, also will add a buffered bike lane between N. 4th and N. 2nd streets.