MnDOT will replace misspelled ‘Ady Mill Road’ sign on I-35E in St. Paul on Monday night

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has a sign replacement project on its hands after installing one with a goof. The agency misspelled Ayd Mill Road, transposing the D and Y in the new sign at the Randolph Avenue and I-35E interchange in St. Paul.

“Ady Mill Road,” the sign at exit 104B says.

A second sign nearby has the name of the road spelled correctly.

“Mistakes happen and we are working to get the sign corrected,” said MnDOT spokeswoman Anne Meyer.

A crew will make a temporary fix Monday night and a permanent sign will be installed at a later date, Meyer said.

Ayd Mill Road, pronounced Eyed Mill, runs diagonally through St. Paul, connecting I-35E in the Summit Hill neighborhood with Selby Avenue in the Lexington-Hamline South neighborhood. Originally known as the Short Line Road, it was renamed in 1987 for John Ayd, a German settler who maintained a mill and residence in the area in the mid-to-late 19th century.

It’s not the first time in recent years that a spelling blunder brought MnDOT some unwanted attention. Last year, the agency was roasted on social media after posting signs at the city limits of the Kanabec County town of Ogilvie with the I and L in the wrong order. “Oglivie,” the original signs read.

In 2020, the contractor that rebuilt Interstate 35W between downtown Minneapolis and Crosstown Hwy. 62 installed six misspelled signs along the high occupancy toll lanes.

“2 or more persons per vehilce,” read the signs, before they were replaced.

In 2015, MnDOT left off umlauts over the O in Lindstrom in Chisago County when it swapped out signs because they did not conform with the Standard Alphabets for Traffic Control Devices. Gov. Mark Dayton issued an executive order to have the umlauts missing from highway signs be reinstated.