Highway 36/English Street Interchange

Highway 36/English Street Interchange

Latest News & Events

Public Hearing
A public hearing on the project will be held on April 9, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. at the Maplewood City Hall.

View the Feasibility Study (14 MB)

Project Open House
A project open house will be held on Tuesday, April 3, 2012 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Maplewood Community Center. Staff involved in the improvement project will be available to answer your questions during this time.

Past Events

Second Open House was held on Wednesday, May 18, 2011.

View the Presentation

First Open House was held on November 16, 2010 and attended by over 60 individuals.

View the Presentation and Display Boards

A Public Hearing was held on Monday, February 27, 2012 in the City Council Chambers in the Maplewood City Hall. The Public Hearing offered an opportunity to formally submit public testimony on the environmental review documentation.

An open house meeting was held for Gervais Avenue and Hazelwood Street area residents on Wednesday, February 8, 2012. The purpose for the meeting was to provide an opportunity for area residents to review the updated design for the proposed extension of Gervais Avenue/Viking Drive and the updated conceptual plans for proposed landscaping and berming between Highway 36 and Viking Drive.

View the Preliminary design for the Gervais Avenue/Viking Drive extension (updated 03/15/12)

View the new Noise Abatement/Berming Options, Native Plantings, and Plant Palette display boards

Design Character Study

The City is in the process of developing aesthetic design concepts for the bridges, retaining walls, and noise barriers included as a part of the project. The design concepts were reviewed with the City’s Community Design Review Board (CDRB) on January 24, 2012.

View the presentation from the CDRB meeting

Federal and State Environmental Review Document and Public Hearing

A combined Federal Environmental Assessment and State Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EA/EAW) has been completed for the Highway 36/English Street Interchange Project. The EA/EAW will be officially available for public and agency review and comment beginning on Monday, February 6, 2012. An EA/EAW is a legal, full disclosure document that identifies the anticipated environmental impacts and mitigation commitments of a public improvement project. The Highway 36/English Street Interchange Project EA/EAW summarizes the results of all studies, reviews, consultations and coordination conducted regarding the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the Preferred Alternative. The EA/EAW comment period will extend through March 21, 2012. Written comments can be submitted prior to the close of the comment period to Rick Dalton, MnDOT Metro District, 1500 West County Road B2, Roseville, MN 55113 or via e-mail at richard.dalton@state.mn.us. An EA/EAW public hearing will be held on Monday, February 27, 2012 starting at 7:00 p.m. at the city council chambers in the Maplewood City Hall, 1830 County Road B East, Maplewood, MN. The public hearing will provide an overview of the proposed project and will afford the public an opportunity to submit verbal comments that will become part of the official public hearing record.

View the the EA/EAW Document for the proposed Highway 36/English Street Interchange Project (20 MB)

Background

The regional vision for the Highway 36 corridor through Ramsey County is a limited access freeway. The recent completion of the improvements to Highway 36 in North St. Paul results in English Street being the only remaining signal between Highway 120 and I-35W. MnDOT has informed the City of Maplewood of its intent to remove the access and signal at English Street and close the right-in/right-out accesses at Hazelwood Street to complete the freeway.

The City was concerned about this loss of access and the impacts that would create for the businesses and residents of Maplewood. In response, the City led a study to analyze the traffic and access needs for Highway 36 between Hazelwood Avenue and TH 61, including the signal at English Street. The study, which was completed in January 2008, considered many alternatives and concluded that a split diamond interchange would allow for the elimination of the signal at English Street while still providing reasonable business and property access.

View the Study Issues Map

In 2009, the City of Maplewood prepared an application for federal funding for the construction of the interchange at English Street. In the spring of 2010 it was announced that the project was successful and awarded $7 million in federal funding for construction in 2014. Now the City has hired a consultant team and is proceeding with the preliminary design process to refine the project concept and obtain approvals. The City has taken the lead on this project to ensure the access needs and concerns of its residents and business owners are represented in the process. The key steps of this process include:

Engage the public and agencies in the design process to refine the design
Complete a detailed traffic analysis to determine the required improvements and any mitigation for traffic impacts
Complete a preliminary design layout for the preferred alternative that details the project improvements and impacts
Prepare an Environmental Assessment to determine any environmental impacts associated with the preferred alternative and propose mitigation for the impacts