ALBERTVILLE, Minn. — The dream of having three lanes in both directions on Interstate 94 all the way from the Twin Cities to Clearwater, Minn. will soon come true.
A veritable who's who of local, state, and federal elected leaders Friday held a ceremonial groundbreaking for what MnDOT calls the I-94 Gap project. The project will add a third lane in both directions along a 6.5-mile stretch of the freeway between Albertville and Monticello.
It's the latest segment of a project that's been in the works for 12 years, with the support of the I-94 Corridor Coalition, which has pressed state and federal lawmakers to come up with the dollars needed to move things forward.
"Everybody recognizes the need, the importance of 94, to the whole state, frankly, whether you're going up to cabin country, or back and forth from Saint Cloud," Steve Bot, who works for the City of St. Michael and chairs the Coalition, told KARE.
He said the $115 million dollar project has been on the drawing board for years but is starting now thanks to money state lawmakers put toward it in 2021 and 2023 budget bill. It's also benefiting from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
"We have a number of different pots of money, if you will, coming together to get an important project done," Bot said.
It's known as the "gap" project because I-94 is already six lanes between Monticello and Clearwater. But it's four lanes between Albertville and Monticello.
Friday's event is one of those increasingly rare occasions that brings politicians from both sides of the aisle together. Some had a hand in putting together the funding, while others took on the role of making enough noise to get it on the radar at both the State Capitol and the U.S. Capitol.
"The decision to upgrade I-94 will be popular for decades. It's a big decision and will take a long time, so you can't have just one groundbreaking," US Sen. Amy Klobuchar told the crowd that gathered at MnDOT's road testing research facility west of Albertville.
Rep. Marion Rarick pointed to House Transportation Committee Chair Frank Hornstein and thanked him for holding hearings on her I-94 bills more than a decade ago, even though at the time he had not been told about the pressure to build the project.
"Going from not knowing about it 12 years ago, to we being done with it all the way to Clearwater in two years? That's amazing! That doesn't happen!"