Project Manager Newsletter
October 2025
It is the end of the harvest season, and the leaves have started falling. The year is going by so fast! Before we know it, we will be celebrating the beginning of 2026.
In this month’s newsletter, I will summarize the engagement from Phase 1B and where we are currently with the environmental study.
We presented our data and recommendation for Phase 1B technical evaluation in May, which required us to evaluate and determine where access will be located on Hwy 252 from a set of five access combinations. We also hosted engagement events to explain the Phase 1B data and recommendation including a coffee chat, a virtual public webinar, two open houses, a survey, and an interactive website. From the end of January to July, our team reached more than 12,500 people, held 27 events with surveys and received 406 comments. The comments were grouped into the top 5 themes from the Phase 1B survey, as stated below:
- Traffic congestion and flow
- Neighborhood access and connectivity
- Safety and crashes
- Infrastructure and road design
- Property and environmental impacts
We are moving the recommended Phase 1B Access Combination #1 forward into Phase 2, which will evaluate mainline alternatives on Hwy 252 and I-94. Phase 2 is the next phase in the environmental process to refine the footprint with the goal to identify a preferred alternative.
While all access combinations would substantially improve safety, mobility and walkability/bikeability compared to the No Build alternative, Access Combination #1 emerged as MnDOT’s recommendation for the following reasons:
- Fewer potential property relocations – 9 property relocations (6 residential, 3 commercial) which is eight to 30 fewer property relocations compared to other access combinations
- Safety improvements – approximately 2,000 fewer predicted total crashes over 20 years (2030-2050), including 21 fewer fatal and serious injury crashes, compared to the No Build alternative
- Improved emergency response times – Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park will meet the emergency response goal of 3 minutes and 36 seconds (set in collaboration with MnDOT, Brooklyn Center Fire, and Brooklyn Park Fire) with Brooklyn Center Fire averaging a response travel time of 2.6 minutes compared to the No Build alternative average response travel time of 4.5 minutes
- Most compatible with existing and proposed future city plans for community and local roads – the interchange locations are proposed at roadways that are planned and designed for higher traffic volumes to serve commercial/mixed-use business corridors
- Improved mobility, transit accessibility, and pedestrian/bicycle mobility, safety and comfort –
- 1 - 1.5 minutes reduction in average pedestrian/bicycle travel times crossing Hwy 252 compared to the No Build alternative and 1.5 minutes reduction in average vehicle travel times crossing Hwy 252 as compared to the No Build alternative
- A similar number of households (81) that do not own vehicles will have access to transit as compared to the No Build alternative (86)
- 62% - 76% predicted reduction in all pedestrian/bicycle crashes over 20 years (2030-2050) compared to the No Build alternative
- Improved comfort in walking and bicycling due to less exposure to high-speed crossings
- Local road traffic volumes would reduce by 9% within Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park
- This reduction occurs because the Hwy 252 alternatives draw traffic off local roads and on to the highway that is less congested.
More information on the access combination analysis can be found online.
Please continue to check out the engagement opportunities we have every month including the coffee chats and table talks on our meetings webpage. Have a wonderful rest of the fall!