Be Prepared for Highway 10 Construction for Years to Come

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The Highway 10 reconstruction project on the east side of St. Cloud is halfway through a two-year project, however, motorists could be dealing with even more large projects for years to come.

Tom Cruikshank is a Principal Planner for the Minnesota Department of Transportation. He says thanks to some extra funding from the State Legislature they are able to take the stretch of Highway 10 south of St. Cloud from a planning study to an engineering study.

They are really interested in having us develop the high cost alternatives that were recommended out of the corridor study which ultimately could result in some improvements starting at 15th Avenue Southeast all the way down to County Road 65.

Cruikshank says the engineering study could start in the spring and take about 1 to 1 1/2 years to complete.

MnDOT also wants to address Highway 10 from St. Cloud to Little Falls.

Including Royalton which a lot of people complain about because of the signal there. We're going to address that again, it's been a few years since we took a look at it and nothing happened at that time. This time we really want to do something. It's time that we deal with it.

A study will be commissioned for that stretch of the highway as well.

Dave Overlund Photo

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The two traffic lights on Highway 10 in East St. Cloud are both still there for now because they were originally out of the scope of the current project, which was driven by the need to replace the Highway 23 bridge. They could be addressed in the new studies, but MnDOT says they are always constrained by available funding.

Cruikshank says from the early planning stages to the completion of a project can take up to 10 years.