I-494 West Twin Cities Metro design-build completed project
SP 2785-305, Letting 05/14/04
Status
Project complete. Opened to traffic September 2006.
About the project
MnDOT - Metro District (St. Paul/Minneapolis)
The I-494 upgrade corrected deficiencies by:
- Adding an additional lane in each direction to relieve congestion along the busy corridor
- Constructing outside shoulders to accommodate Metro Transit buses
- Constructing median shoulders wide enough for the full length of the project to be used in the future as an additional lane in each direction.
Location
- Project constructed one additional through-lane in each direction of I-494 from Hwy 5 to I-394, a distance of 7.8 miles, in the cities of Minnetonka and Eden Prairie in Hennepin County
- Northwest ramp at the Valley View Road interchange was reconstructed
- Hwy 62 and Hwy 7 interchanges at I-494 were reconstructed
Cost
- $110 million
Background
I-494 is a principal arterial roadway that serves a key role in the metropolitan highway system as:
- A collection/distribution facility for other metropolitan area highways
- An urban bypass for interstate or interregional trips
- Access to/from the rest of the metropolitan area for the rapidly growing population and employment bases in the southwestern suburbs
- Access to the metro area from Greater Minnesota
The I-494 pavement in this corridor reached the end of its design life and needed to be replaced. Several bridges along the I-494 corridor needed either deck or total structure replacement and had inadequate vertical clearances between the road surface and the bottom of the bridge.