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<br /> <br /> <br />A County Road 10 History <br /> <br />Originally constructed as a two lane rough gravel road, <br />Highway 10 provided access to and from the capitol city of St. <br />Paul and the farmlands of northwestern Minnesota and towns <br />such as Anoka, Elk River, Saint Cloud and Moorhead, and <br />further beyond into North Dakota. The state assumed <br />jurisdiction of the "road" around 1920 and a few years later <br />replaced the gravel with two lanes of concrete to form the rural <br />style divided highway. <br /> <br />The roadway was expanded to four lanes from Highway 96 through Coon Rapids in the <br />1960s (the Anoka Cut-Off) and shortly thereafter plans were drafted to construct a new <br />limited access Highway 10 north of its present location. The first leg of the new Highway 10 <br />was completed through Coon Rapids in the early 1970s with the old corridor renamed Coon <br />Rapids Boulevard. In the late 1970s, the precursor to new Highway 10—Trunk Highway <br />118—was constructed, connecting 35W in Mounds View to Highway 65 in Blaine. <br /> <br />In 1999, Trunk Highway 118 was extended through Blaine to 610 and Highway 47. The <br />following year, MnDOT “turned back” the roadway then known as Highway 10 to Ramsey <br />and Anoka Counties on June 9, 2000. The Counties elected at that time to not change the <br />numerical designation of their newly acquired former highway. Prior to the 1999 opening of <br />the new Highway 10 system, in excess of 44,000 vehicles per day were driving on County <br />Road l0 through Mounds View, Spring Lake Park and Blaine. After the changeover, there <br />was immediate confusion as motorists driving on I-35W and Highway 65 were presented <br />with two Highway 10 options. While supplemental signage has been added to help <br />differentiate the two routes, people unfamiliar with our region remain perplexed. <br /> <br />To establish a much needed identity and to eliminate persisting confusion, the old Highway <br />10 segment originating in Mounds View needs a name. <br /> <br /> <br />Note: <br /> <br />The above historical narrative was written in 2005. Seven years later, motorists remain confused and <br />perplexed and business owners remain frustrated. The most recent traffic counts (2010) reflect <br />78,000 ADT on Highway 10 and 22,000 on County Road 10 for a combined daily volume of 100,000 <br />vehicles. That’s a lot of traffic for two roadways designated “10” less than one mile apart from each <br />other.