Stearns County Road 4/133 Intersection Being Converted to Roundabout

(KNSI) – A busy, and deadly, Stearns County intersection is about to get a complete overhaul.

The crossing at County Road 4 and County Road 133 will be converted into a roundabout beginning on Monday, June 26th. Stearns County Engineer Jodi Teich tells KNSI News they have tried several times to address safety there but nothing made a difference on a permanent basis.

She says, “In the early 2000s, we made it a four-way stop instead of just County Road 133 stopping because we had a lot of right-angle crashes. That helped for a little bit and then the crashes picked up again. So we did rural intersection lighting, we upgraded and upsized all the signs and we added pavement markings.”

Stearns County made its case to the federal government for assistance. About half of the project will be funded through the Highway Safety Improvement Program from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Teich explains why the change will help. “The roundabout will certainly slow down traffic going through that intersection but it’ll also keep the traffic moving and virtually eliminate the possibility for those right-angle crashes.”

The detour route is lengthy, says Teich. It starts on County Road 2, connecting to Division Street/County Road 75 in St. Joseph. Then you head north on 134 until it intersects with Veterans Drive. Finally, County Road 120 loops to Pine Cone Road in Sartell.

Teich says there is an incentive to have the project done in six weeks. It could take as much as two months.

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