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The Highway 212 Corridor serves as a critical
transportation link all the way from the Twin Cities
Metropolitan
Area to the South Dakota border.
This is an essential transportation connection – designated
as part of the National Highway System as well as being one of
7 key interregional
corridors identified by the State of Minnesota. Making Highway
212 a modern, four-lane facility will improve safety for everyone
driving
in
this corridor and improve the economic development of the state
as products and people move faster and more efficiently through
this
major transportation
corridor that is used extensively to ship products from the western
part of the state to the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.
Businesses, organizations and citizens have been waiting for improvements
to this highway for at least 50 years. As the area has grown and developed,
the pressure has increased to expand capacity. Shippers, businesses,
commuters, and residents are all demanding relief from growing congestion
and safety problems in this corridor. A New Highway 212 is being constructed
from Eden Prairie to Chaska after many years of working to make this
new highway a reality.
New Highway 212 from Eden Prairie to Chaska is scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2008. More information about this projects can be found on MnDOT's web site: http://projects.dot.state.mn.us/zrc/212/index.html
The portion of US212 west of the new
highway continues to be inadequate and poses a real safety hazard as
the highway switches from 4-lanes to 2-lanes, back to 4-lanes and then
back to 2-lanes once again. The number of households in Carver County
is projected to increase by over 110% by 2030, with a population that
will have grown from 48,000 in 1990 to 190,680 in 2030. With significantly
more growth projected for this area in the next decade, the congestion
and safety problems will grow worse unless additional capacity is provided.
Funding is being sought by SWCTC to expand the 2-lane segments of Highway 212 between Chaska and Norwood Young America to create a continuous, four-lane highway all the way from Eden Prairie to Norwood Young America.
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