MANKATO — An increasingly busy intersection in the heart of Mankato’s hilltop — a junction that didn’t exist 20 years ago — is slated for signal and lane upgrades to make it function better.
The intersection of Adams Street and North Victory Drive came into existence when Victory was extended north past Madison Avenue in 2008 and two unconnected sections of Adams were tied together with the construction of new missing links a few years later.
The road projects aimed to promote infill development of vacant land in the area, and it worked. Hundreds of apartments, a revitalization of Madison East Center and numerous new office and commercial buildings have sprung up. But the traffic that resulted from the development, along with through traffic using two streets that now traverse the city from east to west and north to south across the city, is causing congestion and prompted a study of possible fixes to the Adams-Victory intersection.
Two of the latest additions to the area — a Holiday Station Store (now Circle K) and the $21.5 million Victory Ridge Apartments complex, which is currently under construction — will be paying part of the cost of the intersection improvements. The changes come just within the period of time where the convenience store developers agreed to help cover any expenses incurred because of the extra traffic the store would generate.
“There’s a prior agreement that put a three-year window with that development and the interaction with Adams and Victory,” City Engineer Cory Bienfang told the City Council prior to their approval of the fixes last month. “So this is certainly an intentional project based on that.”
A similar agreement is in place with the developers of Victory Ridge, which is bringing 180 new apartments just north of the convenience store.
The plan is to add a flashing yellow arrow, along with a protected left-turn signal when traffic levels warrant it, on Adams Street. Revisions will also be made on the Victory Drive left-turn signals for traffic looking to turn onto Adams.
And Adams will be restriped east of Victory Drive from the entrances to the convenience store and Vista Bank to Dublin Road. Instead of a four-lane roadway in that area, it will be converted to a three-lane road with the center lane dedicated to left-turning traffic, which matches the design of much of Adams stretching all the way to Mankato’s eastern city limits.
Scheduled to begin in August and be completed in October, the work is expected to cost $67,100 with Holiday and Victory Ridge each contributing $6,300.