NORTH MANKATO — There are no plans to rename it Parkway 169, but the highway leading into Mankato-North Mankato from the north will be much more visually appealing in the future under plans presented to local elected officials Monday night.
The proposal would invest $1.2 million to plant more than 250 trees, replace roadside turf with prairie grasses and wildflowers, and potentially add entrance signs and public art to one of the most prominent gateways into the community. Virtually all of the trees and most of the other aesthetic upgrades would be concentrated along the nearly mile-long portion of the corridor from the Highway 14 interchange to the Veterans Memorial Bridge.
“Once you pass under Highway 14, it really feels as if that’s the entrance into the communities,” said Sean Jergens, a landscape engineer hired by the Minnesota Department of Transportation to lead the design process.
It’s an entrance that civic leaders have long believed leaves a poor first impression of Mankato, and the upcoming two-year reconstruction of near four miles of Highway 169 provides an opportunity to change that.
MnDOT typically considers aesthetics to some extent when designing a major highway project in an urban area, and as much as 2% of a project’s budget is reserved for those visual elements. But there was clear interest early on in possibly going bigger with this high-profile doorway to Mankato-North Mankato, according to MnDOT Public Engagement Coordinator Anne Wolff.
The plan offered Monday night in North Mankato attempts to meet the community goals while keeping the price within an acceptable range, Wolff said.
Under the proposal, MnDOT would entirely finance the less-extensive aesthetic upgrades on the southern section of the project between the Vets Bridge and the Riverfront Drive interchange on Mankato’s west side — which largely entails the seeding of prairie grasses and wildflowers.
The agency is also offering to cover half of the $1.2 million needed to accomplish the more ambitious makeover of the northern entrance, leaving $300,000 each for the cities of Mankato and North Mankato.
Each city council will be asked to make it official in coming weeks, but there appeared to be strong support from both sides of the Minnesota River at Monday’s joint council meeting.
“It’s exciting,” North Mankato Mayor Scott Carlson said at the conclusion of the presentation. “I think all of us just can’t wait to see the finished product.”
The mammoth two-year reconstruction of Highway 169 will make relatively modest fixes in 2028 to the southern portion of the corridor. But the work on the north end set to begin in 2027 is much more transformative, including replacing signalized intersections with roundabouts, adding a pair of pedestrian underpasses, extending bike trails along both sides of the highway and constructing some new sections of frontage road.
Such wide-ranging changes presented the opportunity for beautification, and eight community members were recruited more than a year ago join a Visual Quality Advisory Committee to shape the appearance of the corridor before engineering designs are finalized this year.
Andy Wilke, executive vice president of Greater Mankato Growth, was eager to participate.
“This project is a once-in-a-generation project for our region and we have an opportunity to really improve that front door of our community that is Highway 169 …,” Wilke told The Free Press in January 2025. “I think we’re blessed to live in a river valley, and I think there’s an opportunity to really showcase our community and showcase that beauty.”
The committee met five times in all, and the comprehensive concept they produced includes a near-continuous line of trees along the west side of the divided highway from just south of Highway 14 to Tyler Avenue in North Mankato. Dozens of trees are also suggested east of the highway to provide a buffer between highway traffic and the nearby trails and businesses. And the shallow ditch that currently separates northbound and southbound lanes of Highway 169 is to be replaced by a raised median in the segment between the two roundabouts that will supplant signalized intersections at Lind Street and Webster Avenue.
The roughly 2,000 feet between the roundabouts will be the heart of the parkway section, with concepts showing a median filled with ornamental grasses, shrubs and a meandering stone wall along the line of deciduous trees.
The design aims to make the area more beautiful and welcoming while also calming traffic and reducing vehicle speeds, according to the presentation to the two councils by Jergens and MnDOT Project Engineer Nick Ollrich. The current highway is virtually treeless through town.
“It might feel a little like a racetrack,” Jergens said. “… It’s wide open.”
The roundabouts at Webster and North River Drive (which will replace the Lind Street intersection) will slow traffic enough for drivers to notice what’s around them, he said. In the median, they’ll see a short stone wall and wildflowers, ornamental grasses, shrubs and deciduous trees — all placed in a meandering flow that pays homage to Mankato and North Mankato’s history as river towns.
“Kind of the design metaphor is ‘a river of grass,’” he said.
The stone wall would reflect the colors of the limestone from Mankato’s quarries, matching stonework on the Vets Bridge and possibly on the entrances to the pedestrian underpasses that will be located just north of Webster and just south of the River Drive roundabouts.
While locations have been set aside for a Mankato-North Mankato entrance sign and potential public art installations, those additions would need to be designed and financed by the two communities.
“You don’t want MnDOT engineers designing creative things,” Ollrich joked.
Wolff said both city councils will be asked at upcoming meetings to formally back the initiative, including committing to the estimated $300,000 cost. The cities would also need to sign an agreement taking responsibility for all future maintenance and upkeep of the landscaping and other visual enhancements.