Shafer Contracting Takes Lead On $85MAnoka Project

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Cities of St. Paul/Minneapolis.

Shafer Contracting, headquartered in Shafer, Minn., is the prime contractor on this project. Lunda Construction, Black River Falls, Wis., is subcontracted by Shafer to rebuild the highway bridges. Bolten-Menk, based in Mankato, Minn., is the design consultant for the city of Anoka. The managing partners in this project are the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the city ofAnoka andAnoka County.

The existing highway through this stretch of pavement is a signalized expressway where homes, businesses and three cemeteries sit within feet of the four-lane highway. It is now undergoing reconstruction to convert it to a freeway.

Not only will the finished mainline road be safer and more efficient, it will greatly improve connections from one side of the highway to the other, which in the past has been slow and cumbersome.

The HWY-10 corridor through the city of Anoka has been studied numerous times since the 1990’s, resulting in no actual change due to the high price tag and lack of shared vision between the city and the state. In 2013, MnDOT completed a study of this corridor that achieved regional needs while providing community improvements that were supported by all partners. After the study was completed, the city of Anoka engineering staff realized they needed to lead the project.

“Our focus was to develop a singular vision all parties could support and develop a funding plan to realize these improvements,” said Ben Nelson, assistant city engineer of the city ofAnoka. “In just two years, all funding was secured through continuous advocacy, numerous competitive awards and commitments from project partners. With the city leading the project, the community’s values are prominently featured in the design.”

“One unique aspect here is this project never would have happened without the city taking a leadership role and delivering the largest, city-led project on the state highway network,” said Eric Johnson of BoltenMenk.

Coinciding with the current project, there is a major MnDOT road project nearby.

“To the public, there is one major project going on which is a testament to the close coordination the city and state had in the development of these two, major adjacent projects,” Johnson said.

Through the years, accumulating accidents, severe traffic back-ups and dwindling traffic capacity were on the rise and made this project on MnDOT’s list a priority. According to the city ofAnoka web site, the accident rate on this highway is one and a half times the state average compared to other, similar highways.

The design issues were huge on this project, primarily centered on adding more capacity to the highway and improving local access for residential and commercial traffic for the city ofAnoka.

Bolten-Menk and Anoka engineers laid out a detailed plan that all agencies agreed to and was coordinated with the nearby MnDOT project to the east to always maintain reasonable access to the community.

Three busy and high-volume arterial streets cross this section of highway within a very short distance

“HWY-10 is a barrier in the community,” said Johnson. “It takes a long time for folks to cross or traverse the highway during peak hours.This barrier effect is greater than most due to the Mississippi River being immediately south and the BNSF Railway being immediately north, thus not leaving many options to cross those other barriers.”

Preliminary engineering studies for this plan included an underground study of the three cemeteries that line both sides of the highway including one that dates to the 1850’s. To minimize risk in construction, “we used ground penetrating radar around