Cloquet Could Be Getting New Roundabout
The Intersection Has Seen Fatal Car Crashes in Recent Years
CLOQUET, Minn.- The interchange on Minnesota Highway 33 at Interstate 35 in Cloquet has seen many car crashes in recent years, and even fatalities. So Minnesota Department of Transportation representatives have been working on a plan to make the spot safer.
“The state has been working for a number of years, they’ve tried many different things in terms of signage, and striping and some short term fixes, and I think it has helped but the problem has persisted,” said Caleb Peterson, Director of Public Works for the City of Cloquet.
After considering many of the options including an overpass, experts decided a roundabout was the way to go.
“What it comes down to is that the round about is the only intersection type that really gets at the crux of the type of crashes that are happening,” said Jim Miles, the District Traffic Engineer at MnDOT.
Studies show roundabouts like this one lower the number of crashes at intersections by around 40 percent, and they decrease fatalities.
“Roundabouts nationally statistically will reduce the number of fatality crashes by about 90 percent,” said Miles.
The proposed roundabout will cost an estimated 2.3 million dollars, which is much less than an overpass would cost.
“A lot of people talk about bridges here, bridges are an upwards of 6 million dollars of an improvement cost,” said Holly Hansen, the Community Development Director of the City of Cloquet.
MnDOT will be holding a public hearing on the project on July 20th, at the Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College, so that the community can ask questions and have their voices heard, in order to make the road a safer place.
“Any one death is not just a statistic. It’s someone’s mom or dad, brother or sister, and we’re striving to not have that happen,” said Miles.
