Hennepin County crews begin prep work Wednesday, June 1, for a major repaving of Flying Cloud Drive (County Road 61) between Interstate 494 and Charlson Road in Eden Prairie.
According to a Tuesday county traffic alert, this initial work will take three to four days to complete. It will result in lane closures that will move throughout the construction area. No detours or access issues are expected.
Work on the actual month-long repaving project begins in mid-June and will cause road closures and detours as needed.
Crews will start the work with directional closures of Flying Cloud Drive between Pioneer Trail (County Road 1) and Technology Drive. The county will close one direction of traffic at a time and provide signage to inform drivers on which closure is in effect. Work will take about one week to complete for each direction of traffic.
Crews will not fully close the road while work is done between Charlson Road and Pioneer Trail, but residents should anticipate closures and delays.
“We expect to complete much of the work that requires lane closures by mid-July and all major work should be completed before the Air Expo (July 22-24),” the country traffic alert stated. “However, crews will be on site completing other tasks that could result in periodic delays through August.”
The county has provided a detailed map of the area affected by the work and the official detour motorists can use to get around town.
Other summer work
According to a Tuesday Eden Prairie news release, construction crews are also working on several other infrastructure projects in the city this summer.
Duck Lake Road improvements
The project includes reconstructing Duck Lake Road from Duck Lake Trail to Mallard Court, and provides for the addition of a trail and sidewalk. A bridge is also being built over a portion of Duck Lake.
I-494: Airport to Highway 169
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and its partners are working to provide environmental documentation and preliminary and final engineering reconstruction of the Interstate 494 corridor.
To alleviate congestion along the southwest portion of I-494, MnDOT and officials from the cities along the corridor (Eden Prairie, Edina, Richfield, and Bloomington) are developing a long-term vision of how to increase its capacity and better serve the multimodal needs of the community.
That includes improvements for safety and mobility and extending the life of roads, bridges, and other infrastructure along the stretch of I-494 between Highway 169 and the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
According to MnDOT’s website, the I-494 vision is a major construction project that cannot be built all at once due to funding limitations and impacts during construction. The implementation plan identified four separate construction projects to complete the entire I-494 corridor vision.
Natural gas main replacement
CenterPoint Energy is replacing natural gas mains throughout Eden Prairie. Work requires lane shifts as crews work in the public right-of-way.
Pavement management projects
These projects include the mill and overlay, full-depth reclamation and surface seal coating of several roadways in Eden Prairie. Curb, storm drain and drain cover work has already begun.
A listing of ongoing work along the Metro Green Line Extension project in Eden Prairie and elsewhere is in a May 30 EPLN article by Jeff Strate.
Comments
We offer several ways for our readers to provide feedback. Your comments are welcome on our social media posts (Facebook, X, Instagram, Threads, and LinkedIn). We also encourage Letters to the Editor; submission guidelines can be found on our Contact Us page. If you believe this story has an error or you would like to get in touch with the author, please connect with us.