MnDOT updates Baxter council on Highway 371 corridor safety study, seeks federal grant

Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) officials on Monday updated the Baxter City Council on the Highway 371 corridor safety study and said they have applied for federal grant funding to advance several short-term safety improvements.

Bob Rogers, a MnDOT project representative, told the council the study examines Highway 371 from the Mississippi River crossing at the south end of Baxter north to County Road 18 at Nisswa and that teams from MnDOT, Baxter city staff, Nisswa and Crow Wing County have worked on the effort for about a year and a half. “We’re here to give an update on the 371 corridor safety study,” Rogers said.

The study reviewed about five years of crash data and traffic volumes, Rogers said. He reported more than 600 crashes in the study area over that period, with rear-end collisions the most common pattern and a smaller number of angle crashes that are generally more severe. Counts along the corridor ranged from roughly 13,000 vehicles per day on the far south end to as much as 30,000 vehicles per day through Baxter’s commercial strip. MnDOT staff said planners used forecast growth rates of roughly 0.5 percent to 2 percent annually in their modeling.

Why it matters: MnDOT officials said the crash history and some locations’ crash rates exceed statewide averages and warrant targeted interventions. The study is in phase three, which focuses on…