Posted on September 15, 2023
by Staff
By ROBERT HOPWOOD
Delano Herald Journal Editor
People will continue to die along a nearly five-mile stretch of Highway 12 that connects Delano with Independence if no more safety improvements are undertaken along the road, according to a recently released report from the state.
The 4.5-mile stretch of road between County Line Road in Delano and Highway 90 in Independence “has a long history of safety challenges,” according to the report. The authors said it needs significant safety improvements.
That section had the highest frequency of fatal crashes along the 38-mile-long Highway 12 Corridor, which officials once referred to as the “Corridor of Death.”
Based on the history and a computer analysis, “fatal crashes are expected to continue occurring if no changes are made,” according to the results of a year-old study by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
Fixing the road is a high priority for the communities along Highway 12, said Delano City Administrator Phil Kern, who is the chairman of the Highway 12 Safety Coalition.
“Speaking on behalf of Delano, it has been and continues to be one of our top priorities,” he said.
The MnDOT study, which focused on safety first and mobility second, examined about five miles of Highway 12, which remains a safety challenge despite recent safety improvements.
The Highway 12 Safety Coalition and communities’ efforts to raise awareness, and the addition of a median barrier east of Maple Plain, roundabouts to slow traffic at County Road 90 and 92, median delineators, and a slippery surface warning system have made a significant difference in improving safety, said Christine Krueger, a spokeswoman for MnDOT.
“While this road previously showed more severe and fatal crashes than similar roads, safety improvements have made a difference — there has not been a fatal crash on this section of Highway 12 since 2019,” she said.
Chad Erickson, a consultant project manager with MnDOT, said all the low-cost improvements have been made along the road.
“What you are really looking at then is large solutions, some sort of actual physical separation so those vehicles can’t get into each other in opposing directions,” he said.
As part of the study, transportation officials identified four options that would reduce fatal crashes and serious injuries on the two-lane highway while improving traffic flow.
The agency finished the study in June 2022, but MnDOT remained mum about its findings.
“Once the study was complete, they haven’t done anything with it to date,” Kern told the Delano Herald Journal in August.
MnDOT didn’t release the study’s results until this newspaper sent a public records request to the agency demanding a copy of the report.
Erickson presented the study’s findings to the coalition during its Sept. 7 meeting. MnDOT officials skipped previous coalition meetings despite repeated requests by the group, which wanted to be updated on the study’s findings, according to meeting minutes.
The section of Highway 12 in the study area is a rural, two-lane highway built in 1934, which has remained largely unchanged. It carries metro-level traffic volumes at 55 miles per hour through farmland, wetlands, and wildlife areas, leaving drivers with little margin for error.
The road is congested and dangerous based on the data that can be found in the report recently released by MnDOT.
The road segment under study carried an average of 14,300 to 17,500 vehicles daily in 2019. That was near the planning level of 18,300 vehicles per day for a two-lane rural highway.
Traffic is only expected to grow in the coming decades as more families discover Delano and new developments are approved and built.
By 2040, traffic volume is expected to range from 15,400 to 19,100 vehicles per day, exceeding the road’s planning level.
Crashes resulting in death and serious injuries have consistently occurred in the study area, dating back to the 1980s. Despite several recent safety projects, the crash rate along the road remains above what’s acceptable on other roads with similar characteristics, according to the report.
Since 2009, seven people died in seven crashes that involved 15 vehicles, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Four crashes were head-on collisions, two involved drivers running off the road, and one was a rear-end collision.
The most recent fatality in the study area occurred Saturday, March 2, 2019, between Lake Haughey Road and Hitsman Lane. Marleena Anna Dieterich, 18, was driving east when she lost control of her car on the icy road, according to media reports.
The Delano woman crossed the center line and collided head-on with a semi-truck traveling west. She died at the scene. The truck driver, who tried to avoid the crash, wasn’t injured.
The study identified four viable alternatives for Highway 12 that would improve safety and traffic flow along the road. Those options included:
• A two-lane concept with a median barrier from County Line Road to just west of Lake Haughey Road and a depressed median east of it.
• Two three-lane concepts that also would feature a median barrier from County Line Road to just west of Lake Haughey Road and a depressed median east of it. Both concepts would feature two lanes running in one direction and one lane in the opposite direction.
• A four-lane concept with a depressed median. Two lanes would run in each direction.
“All of these are good, feasible alternatives,” Erickson said.
The study, which did not pick a preferred alternative, presented a range of feasible options that address the corridor’s needs, he said.
A preferred solution would be chosen by officials once the alternatives move to the final design process, according to the report. That won’t happen until funding for the project has been identified.
It’s unclear where the project stands.
MnDOT hasn’t identified any funding for changes to Highway 12. During the coalition’s meeting earlier this month, transportation officials talked about the challenges and costs of applying for grant funding, but no one seems to be doing that. Instead, MnDOT employees told the coalition its members could apply for grant funding if they wanted.
Kern said the coalition would discuss the project during its next meeting, which will be held at 2 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 2, at Delano City Hall.
“The Highway 12 Safety Coalition, one of our primary goals is to advocate and make this a high priority for the state,” he said in August.
Editor’s note: Our editing software’s auto-correct feature inserted the wrong word in a sentence in an earlier version of this story. Marleena Anna Dieterich lost control of her car on an icy segment of Highway 12.