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Senate considers bill shifting funding for dangerous US-169/MN-282 intersection to MnDOT
Summary
Senate members discussed Senate File 823 to move funding responsibility for a traffic signal project at the US Highway 169 and Minnesota Highway 282 intersection from Scott County to the Minnesota Department of Transportation to keep the project on schedule; sponsor said the corridor is vital to the state economy and safety.
Senate File 823 received floor discussion on March 3 when a senator described the intersection of US Highway 169 and Minnesota Highway 282 as among the most dangerous in the state and urged a statutory change to move funding responsibility from Scott County to the Minnesota Department of Transportation so the project can be managed by MnDOT.
The sponsor told senators the corridor carries a substantial share of agricultural traffic and that the funding transfer would help keep the project on time and on budget. The senator said there was no opposition in the transportation committee and that the 169 Coalition, which represents communities along the corridor, supports the bill.
"The stoplight and the flow of traffic have led to several devastating accidents," the sponsor said, and described the change as a technical funding shift that would place MnDOT in charge of the project.
Floor remarks thanked the sponsor and described bipartisan committee cooperation on the measure. The bill was given third reading on the floor; the excerpted transcript does not include a complete roll-call on final passage in the portion provided.
Senators also emphasized the project's local economic importance: one speaker said roughly half of the state's agricultural product travels on the corridor at some point en route to ports and markets, and that expediting the signal replacement or reconstruction would advance safety and freight movement.
The transcript shows floor support in committee and on the floor in the March 3 excerpt; the full final vote on third reading was not shown in the provided minutes.
