Lawbreaking drivers spur plan to rebuild Ham Lake intersection

Last month, a Jeep driver heading west on Bunker Lake Boulevard in Ham Lake pulled into the right-turn lane to bypass a line of cars that had stopped for a red light at the intersection with Hwy. 65.

The impatient Jeep driver did not turn right, instead going straight and smashing into another vehicle that was completing a legal left turn. An Anoka County Sheriff’s Office deputy on routine patrol witnessed the “significant motor vehicle crash,” in which the Jeep flipped upside down and left the front end of a minivan mangled.

The Sheriff’s Office posted a video of the wreck recorded by the deputy’s squad dashcam on its Facebook page with the admonition, “Break the habit, not the law at the red light.” Law enforcement has seen too many dangerous traffic violations such as running red lights, and “it needs to stop,” the post continued.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation reports there have been 13 wrecks this year at Hwy. 65 and Bunker. That’s on top of the 103 crashes at the intersection between 2014 and 2023, the agency said.

Traffic volume has increased on both Hwy. 65 and Bunker in recent years, and the intersection is “beyond capacity,” said Joe MacPherson, an Anoka County traffic engineer. “With so much green time on Hwy. 65 for north-south traffic, vehicles on the side leg [Bunker] are getting more gutsy.”

That includes motorists like the Jeep driver who are taking chances, said MnDOT spokesman Kent Barnard.

Westbound traffic often backs up in the mornings as many drivers cross Hwy. 65 to reach nearby schools, and “drivers are choosing to go straight in the right-turn lane to make the signal, which is illegal,” Barnard said. “We would like to stress to drivers that they can’t go straight in the westbound right-turn lane.”

Anoka County is looking to remove that temptation by putting in an overpass that would carry Hwy. 65 drivers up and over Bunker. Any construction is likely four to five years down the road, MacPherson said.

The county succeeded in getting $10 million toward the project as part of this year’s Metropolitan Council’s Regional Solicitation grants to fund transportation needs. MacPherson estimated the entire project would cost between $37 million and $42 million. It would include the new interchange; cutting off direct connections to Hwy. 65 including at 133rd Avenue; and routing traffic along a service road to tie in with the new intersection.

The County Board last month approved a contract with Bolton and Menk to begin preliminary designs to improve the intersection, along with associated corridor improvements in Ham Lake and Blaine. The county plans to get things started then hopes to partner or hand it off to MnDOT, which is already in the midst of a big overhaul of the north metro highway through Spring Lake Park and Blaine.

MacPherson said drivers and those who live in the area will have “plenty of time” to weigh in once public engagement sessions and open houses begin sometime over the winter or next spring.

No one was injured in the Sept. 17 crash at Bunker and Hwy. 65, and the Jeep driver was issued a citation by the Minnesota State Patrol, said Tierney Peters, a spokeswoman with the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office.

The Sheriff’s Office video ended with a reminder to all drivers everywhere: “Don’t gamble with lives. Stop at the red light.”