Trunk Highway 53/194 Hermantown Access Management Plan

The U.S. Highway 53/State Highway 194 Hermantown Access Management Plan focuses on a 5.8-mile corridor in the City of Hermantown, MN, a predominately rural but growing community of 7,600 (1997) persons adjacent to Duluth, MN. This section of roadway is a major transportation link between downtown Duluth, Hermantown, and outlying northern residential communities. It also serves the bulk of traffic traveling between the Iron Range communities of northern Minnesota and the Duluth-Superior area. Access management is defined as an effort to maintain the effective flow of traffic and the safety of the road while accommodating the access needs of adjacent land development. Steady development along the corridor, increasing traffic from rural areas, commercial/residential land use conflicts, environmental concerns, and interrupted traffic flows prompted the Metropolitan Interstate Committee (MIC) to undertake this study. In numerous public forums, representatives from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the City of Hermantown, the Hermantown Chamber of Commerce, and businesses and residents located along the corridor cooperated to develop the plan’s recommendations. These recommendations included the construction of new service roadways, median crossover treatments, driveway consolidation, and intersection upgrades. When applied, these access management recommendations will lead to: Improved safety for vehicular and pedestrian travel; Preservation of roadway capacity; and Reduction in the need for future system expansion. Hermantown and the surrounding communities will also benefit from these access management techniques by: Promoting orderly development; Preventing community disruption from road widenings or relocations; Sustaining land values; and Enhancing the overall corridor appearance and community character. This example of interagency cooperation and resultant policies and recommendations can be applied to numerous communities. Communication and involvement of the general public and business sector were essential in the success of this plan and need to be a main goal of any agency duplicating the efforts of the MIC.