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4 Summer 2013 State Highway 5 to be Converted to Three-Lane Roadway Highway 5 through downtown Lake Elmo will undergo some changes this September which will improve the roadway surface, reduce vehicle speeds, and improve safety. The improvements are being implemented from recommendations outlined in a State Highway 5 Road Safety Audit completed earlier this year by an independent panel of transportation and traffic engineers. The improvements will include: • A thin surface overlay to restore the pavement and provide a skid resistant wearing surface; • Convert Highway 5 to a 3-lane roadway with center left turn lanes; • Install a raised center median refuge for safe pedestrian crossing at the Elementary School, and; • Adding center and edge rumble strips along the rural segments to improve safety. With construction set to begin this September, MnDOT will be placing a thin overlay along Highway 5 from the Jamaca Avenue Roundabout, through Downtown, to the four-lane transition at 58th Street North. The overlay will help to restore and protect the pavement and provide a skid resistant wearing surface. This work will be completed under traffic with no significant lane closures. The “micro surfacing” project will cover up the existing pavement markings. Given the opportunity to re-stripe the roadway, MnDOT has been working with the City of Lake Elmo to place the new pavement markings in a manner that converts Highway 5 to a 3-lane roadway through the downtown area, from CSAH 17 (north leg) to 39th Street North. A 3-lane roadway that includes one lane for each direction, plus the introduction of center left turn lanes, is considered a mitigation strategy for rear end crashes; the type of safety concerns experienced along this segment of road. The lane configuration will also provide a traffic calming affect resulting in reduced travel speeds. Outside of the downtown segment, between the Jamaca Avenue Roundabout and the north leg of CSAH 17, and between 39th Street North and 58th Street North, MnDOT will be adding center rumble strips and replacing the edge rumble strips to alert inattentive drivers when they drift from their lanes. Rumble strips are an effective safety measure and cost effective improvement for reducing accidents due to driver carelessness. Road safety improvements that will begin in Sep- tember include converting Highway 5 into a 3-lane roadway, like the one pictured above. The City of Lake Elmo and the Metropolitan Council have recently agreed to amend the 2005 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two parties, which will ultimately give the City additional flexibility to meet the household and population targets that serve as the basis for the agreement. Under the original agreement, the City would have been required to have a significant number of new housing units connected to the regional sanitary sewer system by 2015. Due to a number of factors, including a major downturn in the economy, the City successfully negotiated revisions to the MOU document in 2010 that pushed back the dates for compliance with the population and household forecasts. With the recent approval of an updated land use plan for the I-94 Corridor planning area, the City proposed a revised developing staging schedule that moves the timing for new housing and commercial development further into the future. The chart to the right identifies the City’s new household and population forecasts in the Comprehensive Plan and as part of a revised MOU. At this time, the revised projections do not extend the development time frame out beyond 2030, which means the same amount of population growth has been compressed into a narrower range of dates. The Met Council has acknowledged the City’s concerns that the proposed timing for new growth and development may not be attainable within this compressed time frame, and the revised MOU contains language that will allow the City and Met Council to continue to negotiate a revised development schedule. The City Council has ultimately established a goal to achieve a reduced overall population number and to move the target date back to 2040. Negotiations between the City and Met Council will continue as the Met Council develops revised household and population forecasts for the Twin Cities region later this year. For additional information about the City’s household and population forecasts, please contact the Planning Department, at 651-747-3900. Lake Elmo and Metropolitan Council Ratify Revised MOU Lake Elmo Housing & Population Projections 2010-2030 Year 2010 2015 2020 2025 2030 Total Households 2,779 3,519 5,114 6,524 8,727 Total Population 8,069 9,677 14,064 17,941 24,000