MnDOT Updates St. Cloud Council on Highway 10 Studies, Safety Concerns Drive Potential Changes

(KNSI) – The St. Cloud City Council got an update Monday afternoon on two Minnesota Department of Transportation studies examining Highway 10, with safety concerns at two intersections driving much of the conversation.

MnDOT District 3 Principal Planner Tom Cruickshank says the agency is taking a close look at the signalized intersections at 15th Avenue Southeast and East St. Germain Street, both of which have crash rates higher than the state average. Cruickshank says safety is the driving concern. “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.”

The first study, launched in 2022, is a preliminary engineering review looking at a potential interchange in the 15th Avenue Southeast area. The second study, which kicked off this summer, covers the 30-mile stretch from the Highway 23 interchange to Little Falls, with particular attention to the East St. Germain area.

Crash data discussed at the meeting shows East St. Germain has seen multiple serious injury crashes and three or four fatal crashes over the past 10 years, including pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities. The 15th Avenue intersection has had at least one serious injury crash in the same period.

Sambatek Project Manager Chad Erickson, whose firm is consulting on the studies, says the safety focus reflects a department-wide priority. “The Toward Zero Deaths effort from MnDOT has been going on over a decade now, and it’s a huge focus of the department. When we look at some of these locations, that’s foremost in our mind.”

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

Residents wondering why the work was not included in the recent Highway 23 and Highway 10 interchange reconstruction will have to wait.

Cruickshank says project development typically takes three to five years, followed by another several years of design and construction, meaning any improvements could realistically be a decade away.

MnDOT plans to hold more public meetings later this summer with refined drawings and alternatives for community feedback.

Decisions on whether to move forward with specific projects are expected later this year or in early 2027.

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