By Mollee Francisco
For Sandee Brown, the early opening of new Highway 212 to Chaska is both a blessing and a curse.
Access to the freeway has shaved an hour off her daily three-hour commute and has meant she can carpool for part of the ride with her husband.
“It’s been great,” she said.
But it comes at a price.
“Then there are the things that come along with an unfinished road,” she said.
Because the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and Zumbro River Constructors initially planned to open the highway only to Powers Boulevard in Chanhassen in 2007, the early opening to Highway 41 in Chaska in early December brought its own set of problems.
For Brown, it’s the long merger from two lanes to one before getting onto Highway 41 that boils her blood.
“These people are crazy,” she said. “They don’t know how to merge correctly.”
Brown said that drivers are merging into the right hand lane as soon as they see the first merge sign, causing traffic backups to Audubon Road.
“People are merging two miles back,” she said. “The first sign should say ‘Merge ahead.’”
Brown and her husband prefer to wait until the end point to merge, but she said that has led to incidents of rage. “The road rage hits when (drivers) see another person going by them and they’re waiting in line,” she said.
Brown said she and her husband narrowly avoided being hit last week when someone “pulled out in front of us to stop us.”
Kinks and complaints
But Brown isn’t the only one grumbling about the new highway. Both MnDOT and the city have received their share of complaints regarding new 212.
City Engineer Bill Monk is trying to stay positive, though. “I should say things are going well,” he said. “It’s being used. No question about that.”
Monk acknowledges that because the roadway was not made to stop at Highway 41, it has created some problems in the city.
Most of those problems were highlighted early on after the freeway opened to Chaska. Backups at Engler Boulevard and Hundertmark Road occurred immediately.
“That’s an issue of signal timing,” he explained. “You change one and it affects something else.”
Southbound turns onto Highway 41 from the freeway have also created problems. With two turn lanes turning into four lanes of traffic (two turn lanes to get onto new 212 and two through lanes), confusion abounds.
“They (MnDOT) need to paint that stripe,” said Monk. “We’re aware of it, but it’s too cold to do it. You can’t paint under 40 degrees.”
On southbound Highway 41 at Engler Boulevard and northbound Highway 41 at Hundertmark Road, drivers have also complained of some jumping into the left-hand lane at the last minute, unaware that the right-hand lane becomes a turn-only lane. Monk said MnDOT could have re-striped that area to merge earlier, but opted not to in order to move traffic better.
Monk said that they went through a lot of changes with MnDOT during the freeway’s first week of operation.
“The state responded very quickly,” he said. “We saw a lot of good things happen in that first week.”
He encourages those with complaints or concerns about the roadway, to contact city hall or the Highway 212 project office.
Meantime, drivers and residents are being encouraged to wait it out. The rest of the freeway, extending out to County Road 147 near Carver, is due to open this fall.
SOUND OFF: What do you love and/or hate about new Highway 212? What effect has it had on your life?