By Nancy Huddleston and Shannon Fiecke, Staff Writers

Help is on the way for motorists stuck in the gridlock at the intersection of Highway 13 and County Road 101, as a $7 million allocation for a new interchange has been approved by the Metropolitan Council’s Transportation Advisory Board (TAB).

The grant is one of four projects approved this week in federal highway funds for Scott County. Besides the $7 million for the 13/101 intersection in Savage, $6 million has been approved for the new County Road 21 alignment through Prior Lake and Shakopee; $630,000 for the construction of a roundabout at county roads 68 and 91 in Credit River Township; and $225,000 in rail crossing safety funds in Jordan.

Funding will become available in the 2011-2012 funding cycle, with the county and cities expected to pony up about 20 percent towards the projects.

Scott County Commissioner Jon Ulrich, of Savage, has been the county’s transportation czar ever since he was first elected in 2000 and said the $15 million in funding is extremely gratifying.

“Each and every one of these projects is critical to the public safety and economic vitality of Scott County,” Ulrich said, noting that only 44 projects of 130 requests were selected for federal funds.

13/101

The intersection at Highway 13 and County Road 101 is currently T-shaped and a major source of congestion and accidents, as people try to get between neighboring cities and onto larger highways, like 169 and 35W.

County Engineer Mitch Rasmussen said the interchange will have an unusual design and cost about half of a traditional one, but will do a lot to improve traffic flow. Only those motorists using left turn lanes will be required to stop at a signal.

Savage City Administrator Barry Stock said the design will allow for east-west traffic to move continuously on elevated lanes over the current lanes of traffic. He likens the design to the X-shaped intersection in and out of the Mall of America in Bloomington.

Ulrich said the county will likely use its new wheelage fee to fund its portion of the project.

“We haven’t made a decision, but this project fits all the criteria,” he said, “We created the wheelage tax as a legacy fund, where we have a pool of money to use as our match for projects such as this that are outside of our normal scope.”

Stock and Ulrich said the 101/13 project is part of an ongoing effort by elected officials to make improvements to the Highway 13 corridor.

“We’re continuing to chip off one piece at a time,” Stock said, in regards to the process. “I remember when we first started talking about improving Highway 13 and we talked about tapping into different sources of funding – which is what we’ve been able to do so far.”

Stock noted the successful effort to get funding for TH 13 is due to partnerships that have evolved over the years to find funding for a wide variety of projects throughout the county.County Road 21Next year, the first section of the planned extension of County Road 21 will get under way. It is designed to continue from its current terminus in Prior Lake, up through the Southbridge neighborhood in Shakopee and intersect with County Road 18, where motorists can then get onto Highway 169. The county recently approved a $728,246 design contract with WSB & Associates of Minneapolis for the northern section of the extension, from County Road 16 to County Road 18. Design work will include a reconfigured intersection at County Road 18 and a park-and-ride transit station.

The $6 million grant will be used to complete southern section, as well as build a transit bypass ramp and bus-only onto Highway 169. This is expected to help buses shave 8 to 10 minutes off their travel during morning rush hour.

Ulrich said 21 is a major connection between 35W and 169 and provides an extremely important connection for all residents. “It provides for greater mobility in the county and an important part of it is that the project includes the transit ramps from the Southbridge Transit Station,” he said.

The county already owns the northern portion of the future road, with the exception of temporary easements, and is working toward purchasing additional right-of-way south of County Road 16.

The county is considering is a land swap to gain some of the needed land. The Shakopee Mdewakanton Dakota Community owns property that must be acquired for the road. And part of a recent large land purchase by the tribe also includes an area that was slated for a transit station.The land purchase frustrated Shakopee officials, in part, because they were planning to build a fire station nearby to serve the southeastern part of Shakopee and now it will have less people to serve and recruit firefighters from. In a recent meeting, Scott County Public Works Director Lezlie Vermillion told the Shakopee City Council that tribal leaders are interested in a joint fire station with Shakopee, possibly on land next to the county’s future transit station. That location would give fire trucks quick access to county roads 16 and 21.  Shakopee Mayor John Schmitt said Savage has made a similar inquiry because city officials are concerned about fire coverage west of Highway 13.  Nancy Huddleston can be reached at editor@savagepacer.com and Shannon Fiecke can be reached at sfiecke@swpub.com.