Bren Road/TH 169 Interchange Project Begins – Minnetonka
- WSB developed the preliminary and final design and will perform the construction administration
- Lunda and Eureka Construction companies were awarded the project on March 28
- Construction begins on April 18, 2011
- Contractor proposes to remove and replace the bridge in 75 days
Bren Road Rebuild, Funded Partly by Business, Begins in Minnetonka
By Laurie Blake, Star Tribune
April 5, 2011
The Bren Road bridge over Hwy. 169 in Minnetonka will be closed from June to September.
Construction will begin this month on a $15.8 million Minnetonka interchange that will be partly paid for by nearby businesses that will benefit from it.
It may be the first public-private deal of its kind in the state.
At the city's request, businesses in the Opus Business Park will pay a "trip fee" toward the cost of the new interchange at Bren Road and Hwy. 169, if they expand and generate more traffic.
The first to pay is UnitedHealth Group Inc., which is building a second 11-story office tower in Opus and bringing about 1,750 new jobs to Minnetonka.
Because the expansion will draw new commuters who would have swamped the old interchange, the city approved the tower only after UnitedHealth agreed to contribute to the needed road improvements, Minnetonka City Manager John Gunyou said.
Under the agreement, UnitedHealth is advancing $5 million for the road work.
"The idea is that the businesses rightfully benefiting from that expansion should be required to pay for the appropriate portion of that expansion," Gunyou said.
Any company that expands in the business park over the next 20 years will pay a "trip fee" commensurate with the new traffic they add. That money will pay off city loans associated with the project.
Were it not for the innovative funding, the project would not be underway because the state has so many projects waiting for money, Minnetonka Mayor Terry Schneider said.
In this case, the Minnesota Department of Transportation agreed to chip in $7.6 million because the project includes the kind of private contributions it wants to encourage, said Matt Shands of MnDOT's office of innovative finance.
Getting contributions from private firms that benefit from road improvements will help "get certain projects done that otherwise wouldn't get done at all or wouldn't get done until much later," Shands said.
The Bren Road interchange, he said, "is the kind of project that we are going to hold out there as a model."
Schneider said that growing private firms can see "it's in their best interest" to have roads improved for employees and customers.
The approach could be copied by other cities, but "you sort of have to have the stars line up," Schneider said. "In this case we had a major employer that was very interested in making it happen."
The bridge carrying Bren Road over Hwy. 169 is set to close from June to September. To make the detour as painless as possible, the city plans to complete the ramp work before the bridge is removed.
"Our goal is to make certain the ramps stay open 100 percent of the time while the bridge is down," said city engineer Lee Gustafson. The open ramps will allow drivers access to one side of Bren from each direction, Gustafson said.
The detour will direct drivers to the next closest bridges, at Excelsior Boulevard or Crosstown Hwy. 62.
When rebuilt, the east-west Bren Road bridge will have three lanes in each direction and two left-turn lanes to north and southbound Hwy. 169. Eastbound Bren Road also will have two right-turn lanes onto southbound Hwy. 169.
"Within the interchange, traffic will flow much smoother; it won't be as congested as it once was," Gustafson said.
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