I- 94 St Cloud To The Cities Looks For Additional Federal Funding

I am one of the many people who travel I-94 between the Cities and Minneapolis/ST Paul on an almost daily basis. Doing it for years, I can see the advantages that the median fences have given us against head on collisions. But, what I didn’t know is part of that drive still covers some of the most dangerous routes in the state.

The Rogers-to-Albertville section of I-94 has a crash rate twice the state-wide average. As a result, local leaders are asking for federal help to add a lane in each direction of I-94 from Maple Grove, past Monticello to Clearwater. That would mean motorists would have four lanes on each side of the freeway between Maple Grove and Rogers and three lanes each way between Rogers and Clearwater.

This would help relieve some of the congestion that always builds up in the area and also deal with some of the tighter areas that exist in a couple of spots. One concern might be the affect it would have on depressing the ridership on the eventual light rail that is covering much of the same area, but with the times tables and funding up in the air, it’s worth looking at all options.