INDEPENDENCE, Minn. — After about a year of construction, crews have completed several safety improvements at Highway 12 and County Road 92. Those behind the project held a ribbon cutting Monday to celebrate the reopening of an overpass set to happen by rush hour that night.
Between speeding drivers and its design, the interchange was previously flawed.
"It was people having to make left or right turns to get onto the highway, which was simply too dangerous," said Gary Kroells, director of public safety for the West Hennepin County Safety Department, which serves Independence and Maple Plain. "Unfortunately, after working here for 26 years, many, many of those fatal and serious injury crashes were during my shift and I was at most of them."
Kroells says first responders grew to be familiar with the area and response times became minimal.
Completed safety improvements include a realigned road, a new bridge to pass over railroad tracks and a roundabout to slow down drivers.
"Basically, focused our time and energy in making improvements here to make it safer for everyone driving on the corridor," Hennepin County project engineer Zach Rothstein said.
City, county, and state government officials, law enforcement agencies, MnDOT, and others make up the Highway 12 Safety Coalition. Last year at this time, the group celebrated a similar project, which involved adding a roundabout where County Road 90 meets Highway 12. It's east of the new project.
"To work together for a design and a construction build of this magnitude is simply amazing," Kroells said. "This is so much safer and will save lives for many, many years."
Another stretch of Highway 12 — built in the 1930s between Maple Plain and Delano — is also currently in the design phase. Plans involve widening, straightening and leveling out the road.
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