04-22-1996 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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TH 12 THREE-COMPONENT TSM PROPOSAL CITY OF LONG LAKE, MINNESOTA I. INTRODUCTION This report addresses the portion of TH 12 in Hennepin County from CR 6 on the west, through Long Lake and Orono to M94 in Wayzata on the east, a distance of approximately 6.5 miles. Given the level of existing and projected traffic volumes on this roadway, plus the fact that there is insufficient right-of-way through the City of Long Lake to provide for additional lanes, the logical solution to increasing capacity of TH 12 is a bypass of the Long Lake commercial district. Until recently, the necessary right-of-way had largely been preserved in an undeveloped state to facilitate future construction of a southern bypass. Regardless of recent residential encroachment on this corridor, a southern bypass still offers the best possible long term solution for addressing the congestion on existing HW 12, from a traffic operations point of view As such, this option should be included in any subsequent analysis of alternative for the TH 12 corridor. In the event that the southern bypass is ultimately found to be infeasible for any reason, including financial constraints, the Three Component TSM option addressed in this paper should be seriously evaluated for its potential to be a viable alternative It must be acknowledged that any proposal other than either widening the existing roadway, with its resulting prohibitive and unacceptable 'mpacts. or a complete bypass, will represent a compromise in operational efficiency of TH 12. II. PROJECT HISTORY TH 12 presently has the third highest average daily traffic (ADT) for a two-lane roadway in the metropolitan area, with the leading two roadways both scheduled for major capacity increases The need for improvements in the Highway 12 corridor was identified nearly forty years ago, with the TH 12 Corridor Study first beginning in the spring of 1958 and continuing today. Fcr the growing communities south and west of the corridor. TH 12 is the primary means of access to the Twin Cities. TH 12 also extends to the South Dakota border, serving as an important link in the statewide transportation system Over the years the problem has been addressed from a number of perspectives Initial plans called for construction of a new limited-access highway south of the present faci'ity between Wayzata and the area west of Maple Plain. As planning continued, communities and interest groups raised issues about the alignment, and new alternatives were presented Efforts still centered on a four-lane highway, with a number of possible alignments. However, the southern route was generally accepted as the likely route, and the comprehensive plans of Long Lake, Maple Plain, Orono and Independence were developed accordingly. Planning in the corridor waned in the 1970s, but was reactivated in the 1980s. Corridor studies were undertaken to evaluate alternatives from Minneapolis to the South Dakota border. Expansion of the existing highway in Hennepin County was a prominent issue Several c' the alternatives were eliminated because of unacceptable impacts, engineering or other factors. The alternative using the existing alignment remained PARSONS DRINCKERHOFF w \Ionglake\repoftdoc