Public hearing on layout hosted by Bingham Lake City Council
The Bingham Lake City Council hosted a public hearing Monday evening, March 2, in the Bingham Lake Community Building, with the focus on the West Gap, or the Mountain Lake-to-Windom section of the four-lane Minnesota State Highway 60 improvement project. The focus of the hearing was on the construction project’s final layout.
Representatives on hand from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) were Peter Harff, Project Manager for the Highway #60 Four-Lane Project and Steve Bowers, Design Manager for the Highway #60 Four-Lane Project.
Also on hand were approximately 34 area residents, farmers, business people and other interested persons who were able to review designs and layout, asks questions and get answers – and voice concerns and ideas.
The hot topic of contention at the hearing continued to be what to do at the intersection of Highway 60 and Cottonwood County Road 2 on the west edge of Bingham Lake. That specific intersection experiences high rates of seasonal traffic with corn hauled to the Poet Biorefining-Bingham Lake ethanol plant, as well as to Miller-Sellner Implement, with adequate space between lanes and safety the focus of many in attendance.
Earlier in the development of the project, MnDOT had proposed constructing a restricted crossing U-turn intersection (RCUT) at that intersection. (In some parts of the country, RCUTs are sometimes referred to as reduced conflict intersections – RCIs – or J-turns.) At a traditional intersection with a four-lane divided highway, motorists from the side road need to look in both directions in order to cross. Left turns require the same level of attention. With an RCUT, drivers from the side road only have to be concerned with one direction of traffic on the highway at a time. Motorists approaching a four-lane divided highway from a side road cannot make a left turn or cross the lanes of traffic. Instead, motorists are required to turn right onto the highway, then make a U-turn at a designated median opening. In an RCUT, drivers always make a right turn – followed by a U-turn.
However, in mid-November 2014, MnDOT made a shift, deciding instead to use a wider, traditional intersection-type at that intersection, as well as the Highway 60 intersection with Cottonwood County Road 44 at the east edge of the city, near Minion Excavating. The RCUTs were scrapped due to the proximity of the intersection of Highway 60 and County 2 to a curve, as well as the fact that the traffic volume in the Bingham Lake area does not quite meet the minimum required.
The layout now includes 125 feet between the westbound and eastbound lanes – including an acceleration lane – of a completed Highway 60 four-lane at both of those intersections, as well as the intersection by PJ’s II. The Bingham Lake City Council, though, and the majority of those attending the meeting per the results of a straw vote taken at the public hearing, continue to push for a 150-foot span at Highway 60 and County 2.
The entire West Gap (Mountain Lake-to-Windom) Highway 60 Four-Lane Project calls for two new existing west-bound lanes be built to the north of the existing two-lane section and realignment of three Cottonwood County roads to lessen skew between roadways. Work on this section of the project is slated for 2017.
