PROJECT IS STILL IN PLANNING AND DESIGN PHASE, CONCRETE AND ASPHALT STILL YEARS OFF

A new county road will be coming to Cottage Grove and its growing business park, pending design and details. An open house was held April 14 to get public input, with construction and/or concrete plans still years out.

“The reason we met is to understand community priorities and concerns,” Washington County engineer Kevin Peterson said of the open house on realignment of County 19A and connection to 100th Street South, held Thursday April 14 at the Washington County Service Center in Cottage Grove.

The road plans, which still have to be designed, would then be dded to the County’s next 5-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) and built. Such plans aren’t expected to see fruition until after 2026, which is the end of the current 5-year CIP plan. Asked what people should know, Mayor Myron Bailey (present for the open house) offered two main points:

• that traffic would be taken off of Jamaica with the proposed route, and

• there wouldn’t be direct access to Hadley, as the road would loop around.

This latter point would seek to address the issue of large trucks on Hadley, which Bailey said in conversation that the city didn’t want any more than residents did.

Taken as currently planned the road realignment would start in a straight line from the intersection of Highway 61 with Keats Avenue South through land currently owned by 3M. Then passing over the Canadian Pacific railroad via a bridge connection, the route would connect to current 100th Street South as a two-lane road widened to include shoulders, ditches, and trails, and allowing for easy access to Highway 61 from the Cottage Grove Logistics Park, currently having earth moved with bulldozers and set to have an official groundbreaking later this Spring.

Following construction the road would be taken over by the county, although currently maintained by the city.

“We would expect that to take place sometime around the construction,” Peterson said of the County taking over the ownership and maintenance for 100th Street South.

Now in the preliminary design phase after completion of a traffic study by the engineering firm of Kimley- Horn, the road project is being undertaken as a partnership between the City, County, South Washington Watershed District and State Department of Transportation, with an additional section that would realign the road to curve near the Settler’s Bluff neighborhood. Then heading out to Grey Cloud Island, where a future regional park is planned.

Not to be left out in the road project meanwhile is the state role, which would include setting speed limits and possible roundabout work near Highway 61. So what did the public coming to the open house think?

That depended on the person, but with 39 total signins people showing up there were a few thoughts made known. Among them was one by a gentleman who suggested the connection to Highway 61 be made in a broader curve from further south on a different road. One potential issue with that plan?

It would cross current 3M road infrastructure arranged as a track complete with mock intersections, rather than an empty field as presently conceived, the field also owned by 3M, it was pointed out.

Also touched on in conversation were the trees on Ideal Avenue, reportedly to be taken out and replaced with younger specimens on both sides. With several years until anything concrete or else asphalt is laid down for realignment, the south Cottage Grove Business Park, is due to grow.

One of many boards on display at the Thursday open house, showing study results and the prospective arterial route. Since completion of the study, Option F has been ruled “infeasible,” due to Mississippi Landings development being approved. Photo by Joseph Back.

Seen here on 100th Street South looking east to Miller Road, the planned extension to Highway 61 would go straight rather than turning to 3M, crossing the railroad with a bridge and connecting with the interchange at County 19A.P The white specks, meanwhile, are collectively called ‘snow’—in mid-April! Photo by Joseph Back.