This year, the top priority for both the City of Cottage Grove and Washington County is securing state funding for the extension of 100th Street in Cottage Grove.”

State District 41B Representative Tom Dippel

A road from the highway to the industrial park, with quicker access than at present. That’s the idea behind the County Road 19A and 100th Street Realignment.
And it’s potentially coming—pending bureaucracy.
Making a request for state funding totaling $22.5 million in addition to $13.6 million in federal grants, the City of Cottage Grove and Washington County are looking to move forward on the long planned 100th Street Realignment project, with State District 41B Representative Tom Dippel giving an update recently via email.
“This year, the top priority for both the City of Cottage Grove and Washington County is securing state funding for the extension of 100th Street in Cottage Grove,” he shared. “I will be chief-authoring legislation that would help this effort.”
Going on to state that the goal of the project is to make it easier for 100th to connect with the Highway 61 overpass on Innovation Road, Dippel said that it would involve installing a bridge over the railroad tracks and adding a roundabout in the area, promising to keep residents updated.
Project partners on the estimated $47 million project include the City of Cottage Grove, Washington County, Minnesota Department of Transportation, and South Washington County Watershed District.
Washington County has been leading the preliminary design on the project, with some $800,000 invested to date. As for outside road funding thus far, the realignment project has received $13.6 million in federal grants, with the final project to cost an estimated total of $47 million, divided among interested government partners, including the city ($4.9 million) and the County ($6 million).
Coming from a 2021 project study, the new arterial route looks to provide connections between regional jobs, educational, manufacturing, and industrial concentrations. Among project supporters are the Minnesota Department of Transportation, city of Cottage Grove, 3M, and Renewal by Andersen. A public input process took place in 2022 and 2023.
The $13.6 million in federal funding is contingent such that if state funds are not forthcoming for the project, the federal grant funds may have to be returned once they begin to expire in 2026, and the project would be delayed. Assuming state funds are secured and it moves forward, the planned road realignment would see construction in 2027 and would help support 500 acres of planned development, balancing traffic patterns on Highway 61, running from Jamaica Avenue South to County Road 19A and connecting the city’s industrial park with both Highway 61 and Lower Grey Cloud Island.