Two recent head-on crashes — one of them deadly — in heavily traveled construction zones have some Drive readers asking if the Minnesota Department of Transportation is doing enough to keep them safe.
On April 26, cameras caught a pickup truck driver heading south on Interstate 35 at exit 54 near Faribault drift across the centerline and slam into an oncoming vehicle. Occupants in both vehicles survived.
A few days later, the driver of a Camry heading north on Hwy. 52 in Hampton Township in Dakota County strayed across the center line near 250th Street and collided with a southbound flatbed semitrailer truck. A 3-year-old passenger in the Camry died, the State Patrol said.
In both work zones, one side of the highway was closed for construction and traffic shared the other side of the road. Orange plastic posts several feet apart serve as the center divider to keep traffic in their respective lanes.
The two recent incidents come after four fatal crashes on I-35 last summer in the area near Faribault, where MnDOT is in the second year of a major resurfacing and bridge improvement project between Rice County Road 48 and state Hwy. 21. A similar traffic setup was in place in 2023.
A few Drive readers fear that the posts — called lane delineators — are not doing enough to prevent the mishaps and wonder if the agency should be using concrete barriers. The Drive took their concerns to MnDOT.
Many factors play into how MnDOT sets up work zones, including traffic speed, volume of traffic, curves and access points to the roadway. The agency follows guidelines spelled out in the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and the state’s version of that document.
The work zones on Hwy. 52 and I-35 comply with the guidelines in the MUTCD, said MnDOT spokeswoman Anne Meyer.
