The Federal Highway Administration has barred Mn/DOT from opening the high occupancy vehicle lanes on I-35W and I-394 (above) to general traffic. Photo by Neil Kveberg

The Federal Highway Administration has barred Mn/DOT from opening the high occupancy vehicle lanes on I-35W and I-394 to general traffic.

At issue is a $100,000 study ordered by the Minnesota Legislature to see how opening the bus and car pool lanes would affect traffic flow and safety on the interstates. The legislation includes language that prohibits Mn/DOT from conducting such a study if it affects federal funding.

Special funding was used to build the HOV lane on I-35W with federal law prohibiting Mn/DOT from opening it. Federal officials believe opening the I-394 lanes at this time would erode popular transit incentives and could have a serious detrimental affect on the future use and acceptance of HOV facilities.

If Mn/DOT does not comply with FHWA guidance on the I-35 and I-394 HOV lanes, officials say all new federal funding for projects in the Twin Cities Metro area will be withheld for as long as occupancy requirements are suspended.

Federal officials are, however, encouraging the state to conduct an alternative study that would not involve physically changing current HOV lane operations.

Follow these links to view Mn/DOT’s Aug. 9 news release and recent articles in the Twin Cities daily newspapers.

For more information about the HOV study, contact Paul Czech, Metro Division, 651/582-1771.

By Jeanne Aamodt

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Editor’s note: This is one in a series of articles Newsline will publish looking back on Mn/DOT’s first 25 years—remembering the people, issues and cultural forces that have shaped the agency and the milestones Mn/DOT has achieved. If you have a memory about Mn/DOT you’d like to share, please send it to Mn/DOT Newsline.

Three Central Office employees arrive for a meeting in Willmar after deplaning from one of Aeronautics’ passenger aircraft. Photo by Cheryl Plathe

During the winter of 1913, a fragile, spidery, push-propeller biplane lifted its pilot over downtown Minneapolis. The biplane, akin to an ultralight aircraft today, arced across the cityscape, marking the first such event in the city’s history.

Thirty years later, the Minnesota Legislature, noting the effect aviation was making on the state, created the Department of Aeronautics and the Metropolitan Airports Commission.

In 1976, the Department of Aeronautics was incorporated into the new Department of Transportation. Its commissioner, Larry McCabe, became an assistant commissioner with the newly formed Mn/DOT. Dick Keinz succeeded McCabe in 1981. Subsequently, Ray Rought, the current director, was appointed to lead Aeronautics in 1986.

Jim Baker, a former chief pilot with Aeronautics, gets a weather report generated by the Air Weather Observation System.

Although it became a part of Mn/DOT in 1976, the former department retained its primary mission: promoting aviation safety and aviation’s role in strengthening the state’s economy.

In 1992, Aeronautics staff consolidated their operations at its current location on Plato Boulevard in St. Paul. Previously, staff members were housed in the Transportation Building, the terminal at the St. Paul Downtown Airport and a shop on Chester Street.

The move helped Aeronautics focus its resources and energy on refining current programs and developing new ones such as its weather information program for pilots.

The program started in 1983 as a TV broadcast service on Channel 17 in the Twin Cities. It was later expanded to include computer terminals at airports where pilots could get printouts of current conditions and forecasts. It also enables pilots to electronically file flight plans with the Federal Aviation Agency.

Viewing a display recognizing Minnesota’s aviation pioneers are (from left) Ray Rought, director, Aeronautics, Ken Wofford, a retired Aeronautics manager, and Duane Haukebo, assistant director, Aeronautics. Photo by Kent Barnard

The system also provides pilots with directional headings and reports on the length of time and the amount of fuel it will take a specific kind of aircraft to reach its destination.

Sixty-one AWOS (Aviation Weather Observation System) sites feed weather data to the terminal system and the national weather database. More than 17,500 pilots licensed in Minnesota now can use the service from home via the Internet.

In conjunction with the FAA, Aeronautics also operates a network of navigational beacons for fliers. The beacons generate radio signals that enable pilots to determine their current position and make needed course corrections.

But the service most visible to Mn/DOT employees might be Aeronautics’ air passenger service for state employees and elected officials. The service enables passengers to reach distant locations, conduct their business and return the same day. Mn/DOT’s fleet now includes two turbo-prop Beechcraft King Air aircraft and a jet-powered Cessna Citation.

Staff from Aeronautics conduct an inspection at a Minnesota airport to ensure it meets operational standards.

Closer to the ground, Aeronautics’ airport pavement management program provides the information to help airport managers plan maintenance or reconstruction for paved runways and taxiways.

Staff members are currently installing or improving instrument landing system facilities at eight state airports.

Aeronautics staff also conduct an airport inspection program to ensure the state’s 140 publicly owned airports meet safety and operational standards.

Since its creation, Aeronautics has conducted extensive marketing and educational efforts. They include a partnership with the FAA to establish an air traffic control training center at the Flying Cloud Airport in Eden Prairie and a partnership with Minneapolis’ Washburn High School to create a curriculum for aviation education. That curriculum now serves as a model for other states.

The components of Aeronautics’ mission add up to support a major Minnesota industry, from a small airstrip in Northwestern Minnesota to the international Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport in the Twin Cities that generates more than $10 billion in economic activity statewide. 

“As air traffic continues to grow in the Twin Cities area,“ said Duane Haukebo, Aeronautics assistant director, “we may need to focus on ‘reliever’ airports in nearby cities and creation of new intermodal facilities statewide where air, rail, and surface transportation modes would connect to provide increased mobility for the state’s growing and diversifying economy.” 

For more information about the office and its programs, see the Aeronautics Web site.

By Craig Wilkins

Front page photo: Dotted throughout the state, these VOR (Very High Frequency Omnirange) radio beacons provide a reliable electronic navigational system for aviators.

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Before traveling multi-modally to its new job in Minnesota, this tunnel-boring machine visited this warehouse in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, where workers retrofitted it to handle the rock forms beneath the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Photo by Jack Brockway

It’s called a “mechanical worm,” but this 500-ton globetrotting machine will use any mode of transportation that can carry its bulk.

Its destination: the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport; its mission: drilling for the Hiawatha light rail transit line.                              

By the time the “worm”—otherwise known as a tunnel-boring machine—arrives at the airport on Aug. 20 from the Netherlands, it will have traveled by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and cruised the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes, with a scheduled arrival date of Aug. 17 at the Duluth/Superior seaport. 

In Duluth, warehouse workers will load the machine in sections onto flatbed trucks heading south for Minneapolis/St. Paul during the early morning and nighttime hours of Aug. 20 (4:00 a.m. for the first set of trucks; late that night for the second set of trucks). The trucks will bear signs saying: ”LRT is on track.”

The trucks will need special overload trucking permits for this overnight journey. That’s partly because its two largest sections will ride on side-by-side trucks with parallel trailers, thus taking up two lanes of traffic at the same time. The convoy will also include a State Patrol car and escorts from Kirscher Trucking of Virginia, who will help synchronize the side-by-side trucks during the journey.

Once the machine arrives at a Fort Snelling field near the airport, crews will reassemble it—a task that’s expected to take several weeks. Sometime around Halloween, the machine can begin its 16-month job of eating underground rocks to tunnel and simultaneously pave a section of the future LRT line being built by Mn/DOT.

The machine’s work will ultimately assist globetrotting humans to travel multi-modally as well, besides helping to reduce traffic congestion on metro area highways. The tunnel that the machine will dig will link the airport’s passenger terminal to the LRT line connecting the Nicollet Mall and the Mall of America.

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Twin Cities commuters increasingly are choosing “park and ride” as their preferred way to get to work. Many of the 155 park and ride lots in the Twin Cities Metro area are full and growing demand for the service is prompting an expansion at more than half a dozen park and ride lots, according to Aaron Isaacs, facilities planning manager, Metro Transit.

Part of national trend

The local numbers tell the story of what is a national trend:

§         The busiest park and ride in the Twin Cities is the Foley Ramp in Coon Rapids where 1,000 of its 1,243 parking spaces are used Monday through Friday. 

§         The second busiest is in Burnsville where all 1,000 spaces are claimed. Minnesota Valley Transit, which runs the lot, plans to add another 350 spaces this fall.

§         In the western Metro area, along I-394, four of the six biggest park and ride lots are full. Out of more than 1,000 spaces, just 85 remain open daily.

§         Across the Metro area, the 26 largest lots are about 75 percent full. 

Growing demand

Although park and ride lots have been around since the early 1970’s, Isaacs said, they’ve really taken off in the past five years. He credits their rise in popularity to three factors:

§         More jobs in downtown Minneapolis—The Department of Economic Security reports the downtown area has added more than 10,000 jobs during the past five years.

§         More traffic congestion—The Texas Transportation Institute reports during the past 20 years, the percent of congested freeways in the Twin Cities has more than tripled. The average resident now spends almost half of his/her daily travel time in congested traffic.

§         HOV lanes and bus-only shoulders—Isaacs said the HOV lanes on I-35W and I-394, as well as approximately 160 miles of bus-only shoulders, makes riding the bus one of the fastest commuting games in town. Commuting times are expected to improve as Mn/DOT adds another 10 to 20 miles of bus-only shoulders each year.

Many of the park and ride lots are the result of a team effort by Mn/DOT, Metro Transit, the Metropolitan Council, transit companies and local communities. John Griffith, Metro Division area engineer, calls the park and ride lots an important piece of the department’s strategic Moving Minnesota plan.

“The expansion of current lots and the creation of new ones are key elements in Moving Minnesota’s plan to provide more transportation choices and to reduce congestion,” Griffith said.  “Traffic congestion is growing across the country and interest in mass transit is increasing. The park and ride lots are one important way Mn/DOT is making it easier and more attractive for more and more Minnesotans to choose mass transit.”

Future lots

Where will the next park and ride lots be located? According to Issacs, new lots will be built or current lots expanded in Blaine; Elk River; Big Lake (park/pool lot) and Riverdale in Coon Rapids, where lots will service the new Northstar Commuter Coach express bus service; Fort Snelling, which will service the Hiawatha Light Rail Transit line; Cottage Grove; Maplewood; Roseville, and Woodbury.

Parking is free and available on a first come, first serve basis. For more information, see the Twin Cities park and ride Web site or call 651/602-1602. Click here for information on park and ride lots in greater Minnesota. 

By Pat Lund  

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The water cooler was a “hot” commodity at Mn/DOT’s exhibit at Farmfest, an annual agricultural show held last week in Redwood County. Photo by Brian Bruckhoff

Not only is Mn/DOT taking its work zone safety message to the streets, it’s also taking it to the farms—or farmers, to be exact.

Employees from Districts 6, 7 and 8—all members of the work zone safety speakers bureau—staffed Mn/DOT’s exhibit at Farmfest 2001, held Aug. 7-9 in Redwood County. Located on a farm southeast of Redwood Falls, Farmfest is an annual show featuring indoor and outdoor exhibits, field demonstrations, craft booths and educational seminars of interest to farmers and their families.

Mn/DOT shared exhibit space with the Department of Public Safety and was one of 450 organizations participating in the three-day event, which typically attracts more than 45,000 people.

“Farmfest provides the opportunity for Mn/DOT to educate people about summer and winter work zones,” said Sandy East, District 8 public affairs coordinator. “It’s also a great public relations tool to be out-and-about with our customers.”

In greater Minnesota, a large number of those customers include farmers. Mn/DOT partners with farmers, for example, to create living snow fences (rows of plants, such as corn stalks, left standing alongside highways to serve as a natural barrier against drifting snow). The department also hires farmers as temporary employees in the winter, East said.

Mn/DOT’s exhibit included a snowplow and work zone safety information, as well as giveaway items such as brochures, pencils, bookmarks and state highway maps. Staffing the booth were District 6 employees Joe Huneke, Cameron Ihrke, Gary Zech; District 7 employees Brian Bruckhoff, Deb Yates; and District 8 employees Darrell Carlson, Bruce Schlueter and Hugh Smith.

With hundreds of organizations competing for the crowd’s attention in the 90-degree-plus heat, how did Mn/DOT attract an audience for its message?

“The water cooler stationed at the front of the exhibit was a ‘hot’ commodity and a good draw,” East said.

Click here for more information about work zone safety.

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