Maple Grove seeks funds to relieve congestion at I-94/494 interchange

During afternoon rush hour, traffic jams are a common sight at the Fish Lake Interchange in Maple Grove, where Interstates 94 and 494 converge.

The problem: I-94 drops from four lanes to three as it splits off to the northwest, and drivers traveling from northbound I-494 and westbound I-94 are forced to merge into a center lane.

"It's a known bottleneck," said John Hagen, transportation operations engineer for the northwest metro suburb.

More than 100,000 vehicles pass each day through the interchange, which was identified in a 2020 Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and Metropolitan Council Freeway System Interchange study as one of 17 in the metro area needing upgrades to improve safety and traffic flow.

Maple Grove has applied for a $4.9 million Corridors of Commerce grant from MnDOT to build a fourth travel lane from the busy interchange to Weaver Lake Road. The lane, to be added on the west side of I-94, would reduce congestion by eliminating the need to merge into the center lane and spreading out traffic.

"We are proposing a low-cost, high-benefit project," Hagen said.

The city of Rogers has applied for an $8.5 million Corridors of Commerce grant to add an auxiliary lane on westbound I-94 to handle traffic getting on and off the freeway. The lane would run from Hemlock Lane to Weaver Lake Road.

A third application, submitted by the I-94 West Corridor Coalition, seeks $13.4 million to cover the cost of adding both the extra travel lane and the auxiliary lane.

Both Rogers and Maple Grove are members of the coalition, which is composed of leaders representing city governments and businesses along I-94 in Hennepin and Wright counties. Hagen said the three applications are not competing with each other — the entities each applied because "there is a desire to do something to improve the bottlenecks," he said.

"It's one of the coalition's top three priorities," Hagen said.

The Legislature in 2013 established the Corridors of Commerce program, allowing MnDOT to award money for projects that support economic development but are not already on the agency's construction schedule. Over the past nine years, MnDOT has allocated more than $1.1 billion for 34 projects.

This year, the agency has $250 million to give out and has received 39 applications — 21 in the metro area and 18 in greater Minnesota — by the Nov. 30 deadline. MnDOT will announce the winners in May.

"We are cautiously optimistic" one of the three applications will be selected, Hagan said. "We are not asking for $30 million."

Hwy. 610 extension update

Maple Grove is also playing the waiting game on its plans to finish what's been dubbed the "North Crosstown." The city wants to add two missing connections at the Hwy. 610/I-94 interchange and extend the heavily traveled road west to County Road 30.

Federal approval and authorization to bid the $53 million project are pending. The project also needs money from MnDOT, Hagen said.