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Politics & Government

Updated: Lots of Fridley Interest in E. River Rd. Plans

Dozens show up to ask questions and vent frustrations over preliminary plans to improve busy Anoka County Road 1.

Updated below. There was no presentation planned for Tuesday's publc meeting about the future of East River Road NE.

It was supposed to be an informal, open-house, neighborhood-type meeting, with three maps spread out on three tables and several county planners and consultants on hand to answer questions.

But there were so many people asking so many questions that after about a half hour it was decided to make a more formal, organized presentation of information.

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The scene was and the occasion was the third of four neighborhood meetings designed to inform residents of a study initiated by Anoka County to determine the future of East River Road.

With more development in the north—in Ramsey and even Coon Rapids—traffic volume will continue to increase. The study presented suggestions that would enable East River Road, currently two lanes in both directions, to handle that increase without widening it to three lanes in each direction.

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"Anoka County is a doggone funnel," said Kate Garwood, a planner for Anoka County. "We need to be able to handle who's on the road in the future. The only they can get down there [from the north toward the city centers] is through the funnel. We've got four lanes here and six lanes worth of traffic."

Update* (2 p.m. Thursday): In response to one citizen's comment that “you’re making it into an autobahn, is what you’re doing,” Fridley Community Development Director Scott Hickok responded, “We’re trying to make it more park-like than autobahn.”

Some citizens voiced concerns that East River Road is a residential street, not a highway. Why couldn’t traffic be routed to University Avenue and Highway 252?

Garwood warned that people wouldn’t like her answer, but said, “State highways connect counties, county highways connect communities, and local streets connect neighborhoods.”

The county couldn’t block off East River Road to through traffic but could try to make it handle the traffic more efficiently, she said.

One way to do that: Limit side-road access to the county road by changing some streets into cul-de-sacs. This was suggested for Locke Lake Road and Glen Creek Road.

Another way is to make some side streets “right-in, right-out.” This involves making the median solid where it is now open, so vehicles could no longer cross all lanes of traffic.

The preliminary plans suggest this strategy for Rice Creek Way and 69th Way.

Won't that cause people to make U-turns further on? The planners' response was that it’s safer to make a U-turn at a controlled intersection than to try to cross at an uncontrolled one.

The last meeting is set for Sept. 27, 6:30 p.m., on Glencoe Street near East River Road.

For more information about the project, visit the Anoka County web page devoted to it.

*The update to this post is material that wasn't included in the original text due to an editorial error.

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