Highway 10/169 Improvements

The City of Anoka delivered the largest city-led highway project in the state of Minnesota. The nearly fully developed city was bisected by US Highway 10/169 in the early 1960s. In that project’s wake was a community divided by a major highway which inhibited the movement of all modes of travel. Since then, this roadway remained unchanged carrying more than 60,000 vehicles-per-day on a 4-lane expressway.

For decades, the corridor was severely congested and experienced high crash rates. In the previous 10 years, more than 1,100 crashes were recorded on this 1-mile stretch of road, with more than 325 people injured, including 2 fatalities. Pedestrians and bicyclists had a limited network and their exposure to traffic was extremely high.

This project converted the highway to a freeway including an interchange at Thurston Avenue, an overpass at Fairoak Avenue, and interchange reconstruction at Main Street. Equally important was a new series of frontage roads which allows the community to move without having to access the major highway. The project resulted in a 75 percent reduction in delays by eliminating all at-grade access points and signals on Highway 10/169 in Anoka. It also resulted in a 57 percent crash reduction, enhancing the corridor’s safety, reliability, and efficiency.