EAGLE LAKE — Daryl Guentzel has farmed next to Eagle Lake long enough to remember when Highway 14 was just a two-lane running straight through the then-small town east of Mankato.
Guentzel witnessed the construction of the four-lane bypass in the 1990s, watched as a variety of fixes were attempted in recent years at the crash-prone at-grade intersections with the new Highway 14 and now has a great vantage-point for how dangerous the route remains.
“Out on that highway all the time, I see it. Especially from my semi, I see it,” Guentzel said. “And it’s terrible.”
Hauling truckloads of corn on Highway 14 to the ethanol plant in Janesville, he sees the heavy traffic, the high speeds and the danger.
“It’s treacherous with a heavy, slow-moving truck to navigate that road,” he said Monday night as he prepared to visit a public open house for the Highway 14 Corridor Study.
Guentzel said he wasn’t walking in with answers but was curious what possible solutions were being considered in the $300,000 18-month study. And he was ready for any remedy that would prompt people to ease up on the accelerator.
“I wish there was a way simply to slow the traffic down to a reasonable speed,” he said. “They’re moving too fast.”
The open house was part of a three-month effort, continuing through September, to gather the public’s concerns and priorities for the corridor. Alternatives for improving the highway and its intersections will then be developed over the winter and presented to the public for more input in March, said Angie Bersaw of Bolton and Menk, the consulting firm that won the contract to lead the study. From May through June, a implementation plan is to be completed for potential short-term and long-term improvements.
Bersaw was hosting the open house at Eagle Lake’s City Hall, along with officials from the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Mankato-North Mankato Area Planning Organization, which are sharing the study’s cost. They answered questions and listened to the concerns and the suggestions of a steady stream of attendees.
The concerns often centered on Highway 14’s intersections with County Road 56 and with Parkway Avenue/County Road 17. Both have crash rates higher than the statewide average for similar intersections.
Although the Eagle Lake intersections have generated the most scrutiny, the study encompasses a lengthier segment stretching from the Blue Earth County Road 12 interchange on Mankato’s east side to the state Highway 60 intersection east of Eagle Lake, which also has an above average crash rate.
Safety is a top focus, but the study aims to create a long-term vision for the highway that also ensures mobility, economic vitality and access for all modes of travel — from freight to bike paths. Planners say the community’s input is critical to accomplishing that vision, as is a final implementation plan that provides a detailed, feasible outline for future improvements, including triggers for individual upgrades, cost estimates and delineation of which agency is responsible.
Along with the attendees at Monday night’s meeting, about 70 people offered thoughts earlier this month at Eagle Lake’s Tater Days festival and more weighed in on the project’s webpage — filling out a survey or pinning comments to an online map.
Three dozen comments had already been added to the map as of late Monday afternoon with about half focused on the County Road 56 intersection, commonly called “The Casey’s corner” in a nod to the convenience store there, and the J-turn that was added to address safety concerns.
Some suggested specific new intersection designs. A couple supported a traditional grade-separated intersection with ramps and an overpass on Eagle Lake’s eastern side. Many complained about poor sightlines, warned that many drivers don’t merge properly when using the J-turn, called for speed-limit reductions through the area or requested acceleration lanes.
Ideas are welcome because the study is in the information-gathering and brainstorming stage, said MnDOT traffic engineer Scott Thompson.
“Now is when were seeking what the issues are, what opportunities there are,” Thompson said.
And while upcoming stages will consider factors like feasibility, cost constraints and likely effectiveness of various ideas, the current phase is about looking at all possibilities.
“There’s a whole range of solutions,” said Matt Pacyna of Transportation Collaborative and Consultants, which is subcontracting with Bolton and Menk on the study. “Everything’s on the table.”
Even while everything is on the table, there was a clear call, too, for doing something — anything — to ease the risk of injury and death along the corridor. An indication of the safety concerns was evident in one woman’s written comment that the very least MnDOT should do is post a sign for people preparing to enter Highway 14 at the Casey’s corner.
She even suggested how the sign could be worded, writing a passage that sounded almost like the transportation equivalent of the Surgeon General’s label on tobacco products: “Warning! Speed limit is 65. Injuries or even death can occur if you are not confident in your spacing. Oncoming traffic shouldn’t have to move lanes to avoid you.”
People can add their thoughts, ideas and warnings at zanassoc.mysocialpinpoint.com/hwy-14-eagle-lake-corridor-study.