Repaving Eden Prairie’s busiest city street this summer will test the patience of motorists and businesses alike.
The city announced on March 15 that work on Prairie Center Drive between Highway 212 and Flying Cloud Drive is expected to start in June, take about two months to complete, and require detours when southbound and northbound lanes are shut down, one at a time.
With Elevate at Southwest Station apartments at the north end of the project area and Chick-fil-A restaurant at the south end, some of the most affected businesses along the route include Old National Bank and others in the Flagship Office Building; Bachman’s Floral, Home and Garden store, and Life Time Eden Prairie Athletic – all of which have direct access to Prairie Center Drive.
The staging of the project and its detours could still change, however, as the city reaches out to businesses and residents for feedback and holds a public open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 27, in the Heritage Rooms of the Eden Prairie City Center, 8080 Mitchell Road.
That level of public engagement doesn’t always happen with city street projects. But this one’s different because it impacts businesses and a significant number of motorists. According to a 2020 city estimate, about 20,000 vehicles travel daily on Prairie Center Drive between Highway 212 and Singletree Lane.
Assistant City Engineer Adam Gadbois said the city is trying to strike a balance between minimizing disruption and completing the project as fast and safely as possible. If the current plan holds, when northbound or southbound lanes of Prairie Center Drive are closed, motorists will need to detour on Technology Drive past Costco and Flying Cloud Drive past the Eden Prairie Center.
Businesses on both sides of Prairie Center Drive will remain open, with vehicles able to turn and cross a construction zone and sometimes a gravel surface to gain access. “People turning into businesses will be allowed to cross through the construction zone in a safe way,” Gadbois explained.
“Ultimately, we know it’s going to be disruptive,” he added. “We have a team of people that have a lot of experience that are working on the plans for this. We’re hoping to secure a very responsible contractor through the bidding process. And everyone’s going to be working to make it as efficient as possible.
“We’re going to work our best to minimize (disruption),” added Gadbois, “and we’re confident we can do that.”
City staff have already met with the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce regarding the project. Chamber President Pat MulQueeny said his organization is spreading the word to make business managers aware of the project so they can prepare for the traffic disruptions but also engage with city officials beforehand, including at the March 27 open house.
One of those business managers is Nancy Litwin, vice president and general manager of Eden Prairie Center, who said that educating mall customers about the traffic disruptions will be key.
“We’re working closely with the City of Eden Prairie Engineering to understand the project phasing and detours to provide shoppers and employees with details for ease of access,” she said. “It’s really all about preparation and communication.”
As the project draws near, they’ll use in-mall communications and signage as well as social media and the mall’s website to explain how best to access Eden Prairie Center, said Litwin.
In addition, the chamber is encouraging city officials to continue exploring alternatives that might be less disruptive, such as splitting the work into stages – north and south of Singletree Lane, for example.
Gadbois said the city did look at closing either southbound or northbound lanes of Prairie Center Drive and having the two open lanes carry traffic in both directions – one lane for southbound traffic and one lane for northbound traffic. But, Gadois said that would require numerous median cuts and a temporary “flash mode” on traffic signals, confusing drivers and slowing traffic.
“We did look at that option, and it’s just too challenging,” he said.
The city says it is committed to using signage to help businesses and motorists.
Said Gadbois: “We’re going to be having not only the standard traffic control signage – ‘Road Closed,’ ‘Caution,’ ‘Road Work Ahead’ – but also custom business signs that say businesses are open, here’s the access route; on each end of the corridor, we’ll have a big sign that says ‘This is the Project,’ a giant QR code … so we’re having an ‘above and beyond’ on the traffic control.”
The pavement rehabilitation project has been in the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for years. The CIP is a 10-year project plan that gets updated every two years.
All Eden Prairie city streets are manually inspected every three years. Cracks and distresses are tallied and put into a “pavement condition index” for scoring, which is used as a guide for scheduling repairs. For more information, the city also hires someone to drill in order to get a 4- to 6-inch core sample of the pavement so its profile can be analyzed for wear and tear.
It’s clear from cracks and samples that this segment of Prairie Center Drive needs to be repaved, said Gadbois.
“For folks that drive along that corridor, you can tell – visually, and then kind of feeling it – that the pavement is starting to degrade,” he said. “It’s just in rough shape.”
The city-hired contractor will use a “reclamation process” on the pavement work. That means recycling, said Gadbois. A milling machine will pulverize the existing asphalt and blend it with the gravel underneath to create a new base. They will stabilize and strengthen that base by injecting cement material into the gravel. The process requires less excavation and re-uses road material.
“I would say those are unique pavement rehabilitation methods,” Gadbois said. “We do use them on other streets in Eden Prairie, but not all streets.”
As part of this project, the city will also improve the existing traffic signals at Regional Center Drive, adding flashing yellow arrows to ease traffic flow and improving pedestrian ramps and crossing devices at the corners to meet the latest Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) standards – similar to what was done at Singletree Lane and several other intersections in Eden Prairie.
Gadbois said the city is waiting on an engineer’s cost estimate for the overall project, because the scope has changed some. In the 2023-2032 Capital Improvement Plan, the pavement work alone is estimated at $805,000.
The city will finalize the project’s design and then open construction bids on May 9, when the total cost will be known. It plans to award a construction contract on May 21 and start construction after school gets out in June.
Although not part of this project, a nearby effort will follow in a few months to install traffic lights at the intersection of Prairie Center Drive and Franlo Road, near Arby’s restaurant and the Eden Prairie Library.
As for the road closures anticipated for the Prairie Center Drive project starting in June, it’s not the first time Eden Prairie motorists will have experienced disruption due to a traffic project. In 2020, LRT bridge work required directional lane closures for the same area of Prairie Center Drive. Hennepin County, in 2022, worked on Flying Cloud Drive resurfacing, using short-term road closures. And, in 2021, the county improved Baker Road with full directional closures.
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