Q: Riverfront Drive observation … .
Prior to the Endless Construction Summer if I was going west on Madison Avenue there were two left-turn lanes to proceed south on Riverfront Drive. It worked well. I always positioned my vehicle in the proper lane to end up having a straight shot through Old Town. (Sorry merchants and planners — this a road first and merchant destination secondly.)
Eazy peezy.
Post construction — there’s an arrow in the left lane to Old Town and a designated right-turn lane. Middle lane? No marking. Can’t go right. Going straight ahead takes you to a westside Riverfront business. I have used the middle lane to turn left, and due to the concrete lane separation, the left lane folks swing wide and take up both lanes almost causing accidents.
So … what is the middle lane used for? Parking? Loading up the pizza joint on the west side of Riverfront? Future launch site to the quarry area development? And when will this futuristic road be punched through?
As it now stands it ain’t working.
A: A big part of the “Endless Construction Summer” mentioned by the reader was the reconstruction of Riverfront Drive from just north of Main Street to just past the Madison Avenue intersection.
Some of the pavement markings at the Madison-Riverfront intersection were lost in the process, according to interim Mankato Pubic Works Director Karl Keel.
“The striping on Madison was partially removed as a result of the Riverfront Drive construction but will be replaced as it was before construction,” Keel said. “This work will occur as soon as possible. Given winter conditions, this striping will wait until the pavement is warmer to hold the paint.”
But that doesn’t mean that drivers are left with no clues as to the purpose of the middle lane on westbound Madison Avenue.
“The two advance signs on the side of the road are correct,” Keel said.
A sign located on the right side of Madison has arrows showing that traffic in the right lane must turn right, traffic in the left lane must turn left, and traffic in the center lane can turn left or go straight.
Providing another clue, the semaphore at the intersection has green arrow lights directly above the left and middle lanes letting drivers know when they are allowed to turn left.
As for the reader’s concern about getting sideswiped when using the middle lane to turn left, that’s the risk that comes with intersections offering two lanes for left turns. It doubles the number of vehicles that can make a left during a particular traffic light cycle. But if distracted drivers don’t stay within their designated turning zone, collisions can result.
One potential distraction at the Madison-Riverfront intersection was mentioned by the reader. What exactly is the point of allowing drivers in the middle lane the option of going straight?
After all, a driver that actually continues straight ahead would run into some scraggly shrubs, crash into a concrete post and — if still managing to maintain adequate momentum — knock down several trees before plunging into the Mankato Quarry.
All of which is not the intention of road planners.
The going-straight option currently exists only to let drivers know that they can use that lane to veer into the parking lot entrance of the little Metro by T-Mobile shop that’s squeezed into a tiny parcel between the intersection and the quarry.
Q: So what about the possibility of the middle lane providing access to a “future launch site to the quarry area development?”
A: Ask Us Guy awards bonus points to the reader for remembering that a westward extension of Madison Avenue is something being considered by city and county transportation planners.
It would involve the creation of a new four-quadrant intersection at Madison and Riverfront, maybe even utilizing a roundabout design, with the new fourth leg on the west side serving one or two purposes. One option would have it curve north behind Graif Clothing and Pizza Hut to tie directly into Third Avenue. Alternatively, the new road could lead into the heart of the Mankato Quarry, which is no longer being actively mined and is expected to eventually be redeveloped into housing, commercial uses or parkland.
A 2023 study of the Third Avenue corridor, which is under the jurisdiction of Blue Earth County, found that a four-quadrant intersection would be an improvement over the current situation where Madison and Third connect to Riverfront from opposite directions at two different locations just 400 feet apart.
A combined intersection would be better for traffic operations, safety and “regional connectivity” by creating a seamless Third Avenue/Madison Avenue roadway leading from Mankato’s northwestern city limits all the way to the eastern edge of town, according to the study.
Q: And when will this futuristic road be punched through?
A: Probably not in the near term.
“That’s something the city and county are interested in doing, making that a better, safer intersection,” Blue Earth County Public Works Director Ryan Thilges told The Free Press in 2023.
But it would require use of a sliver of the eastern edge of the privately owned quarry. And even though new stone isn’t being quarried there, the site continues to be used by Kasota Stone Fabricators for marketing and processing limestone and other stone mined elsewhere.
So the future road connection will have to wait until stone processing comes to a close and planning for redevelopment of the site begins.
Contact Ask Us at The Free Press, 418 S. Second St., Mankato. Email Mark Fischenich at mfischenich@mankatofreepress.com
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