MnDOT Narrows Highway 10 Interchange Options in St. Cloud to Three; Public Meetings Set for August 13th

(KNSI) – Drivers and residents who use Highway 10 in east St. Cloud will get their first look next week at the three interchange designs still under consideration for one of the corridor’s most troublesome stretches.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is hosting two in-person public meetings Thursday, August 13th. The first runs from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. at St. Cloud Public Works, and the second from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Haven Town Hall. Both are open-house style, and people can stop in at either location any time during the listed hours to ask questions and talk with project staff.

The meetings follow input gathered from the community and local partners last summer. MnDOT has narrowed the possible improvements at the 15th Avenue Southeast and 12th Street Southeast (County Road 7) intersections down to three concepts, all of which would use roundabouts to move traffic on and off the highway.

The first option would build an overpass at the existing 15th Avenue Southeast/7th Street Southeast location, with westbound ramps feeding a roundabout at 7th Street Southeast and eastbound ramps feeding a roundabout at 15th Avenue Southeast. It is the only design that keeps highway access where it is now, but MnDOT flags significant business impacts along 7th Street Southeast and notes the location sits too close to the Highway 23 interchange, requiring extra lanes for entering and exiting traffic.

Option two would build a compact diamond near 12th Street Southeast. It meets MnDOT’s recommended spacing from the Highway 23 interchange and would have minimal business impacts, but it removes highway access at 15th Avenue Southeast/7th Street Southeast, sits the farthest from the existing 15th Avenue crossing and affects wetlands.

The third option would place a compact diamond midway between the two intersections. MnDOT’s own comparison rates it the strongest overall of the three, scoring well on traffic flow, driver safety and pedestrian safety. It also would remove highway access at 15th Avenue Southeast/7th Street Southeast and would significantly affect one business south of Highway 10, along with wetland impacts.

A fourth scenario, leaving the existing traffic signal in place, remains on the comparison chart but rates weak for driver safety.

MnDOT District 3 Principal Planner Tom Cruickshank told the St. Cloud City Council in May that crash history is the reason the agency is looking at the corridor at all. “Anytime you have a highway that has any type of a crash problem or you’ve got severe injury crashes, it really raises red flags with us.”

Traffic volumes are also a factor, with peak summer weekends pushing more than 40,000 vehicles through St. Cloud on a highway built in the 1960s for far less traffic.

People who cannot make either meeting can review the alternatives and leave comments through the Questions and Feedback tab on the project page at talk.dot.state.mn.us/central-minnesota-hwy-10-initiatives.

Decisions on whether to move any of the concepts forward are expected later this year or in early 2027. Even then, Cruickshank has said project development typically takes three to five years, with design and construction adding several more, meaning actual work could be close to a decade out.

___