Minnesota State Highway 280 (MN 280) is a

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

in the

Twin Cities Twin cities are a special case of two neighboring cities or urban centres that grow into a single conurbation – or narrowly separated urban areas – over time. There are no formal criteria, but twin cities are generally comparable in statu ...

region of

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

that runs from its interchange with Interstate 94/ US Highway 52 (I-94/US 52) in

Saint Paul Paul; grc, Παῦλος, translit=Paulos; cop, ⲡⲁⲩⲗⲟⲥ; hbo, פאולוס השליח (previously called Saul of Tarsus;; ar, بولس الطرسوسي; grc, Σαῦλος Ταρσεύς, Saũlos Tarseús; tr, Tarsuslu Pavlus; ...

to its interchange with

I-35W Interstate 35W may refer to: * Interstate 35W (Texas), an Interstate highway serving Fort Worth, Texas, and its suburbs * Interstate 35W (Minnesota), a Interstate highway serving Minneapolis, Minnesota, and its suburbs **The I-35W Mississippi Riv ...

in Roseville. MN 280 is an important connector route because the junction of I-94/US 52 and I-35W in nearby downtown

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

is not a complete interchange.

Route description

MN 280 serves as a north–south route along the western edge of Ramsey County, between the city of

and suburban Roseville. The highway passes through the small city of

Lauderdale Lauderdale is the valley of the Leader Water (a tributary of the Tweed) in the Scottish Borders. It contains the town of Lauder, as well as Earlston. The valley is traversed from end to end by the A68 trunk road, which runs from Darlington to ...

between Saint Paul and Roseville. MN 280 is largely built on a slope, providing an excellent view of downtown Minneapolis to the west, particularly for southbound vehicles. The route has a posted speed limit over its entire length. MN 280 is built to

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

standards from its interchange with I-94/US 52 to its interchange with East Hennepin Avenue/Larpenteur Avenue, although the entrance and exit ramps at Como Avenue are rather tight. This section of the route has auxiliary lanes between University Avenue and the Kasota Avenue/Energy Park Drive exit. There is a signal-controlled intersection at Broadway Street NE on southbound MN 280 only. The MN 280/I-35W interchange in Roseville is incomplete, so traffic from MN 280 northbound cannot reach I-35W southbound without using intersecting surface streets, and the same is true for northbound I-35W traffic attempting to reach southbound MN 280.

History

MN 280 was authorized on July 1, 1949, but construction did not begin until 1955. It was completed between MN 36 and Kasota Avenue in 1959 and to University Avenue (at that time, US 12, US 52, MN 56, and MN 218) in 1961. The highway was linked to I-94 in 1968 upon the freeway's completion between Minneapolis and St. Paul. South of Como Avenue, MN 280 was widened and its ramps improved in the mid-1990s. The Larpenteur Avenue/East Hennepin Avenue interchange in

was reconstructed in 2009 to eliminate the tight, no-acceleration-lane ramps. The intersection at County Road B was also closed permanently in 2009, as were the unsignaled intersections at Roselawn Avenue and Walnut Street. With construction completed in December 2009, the signal at Broadway Street was modified to allow left turns from northbound MN 280, thus maintaining a stoplight for southbound MN 280 only, but Broadway Street traffic can now only turn south. Thus, MN 280 is now in a sense a northbound freeway only, with a single stoplight for southbound traffic. The 2009 construction project also rehabilitated the concrete pavement between I-94 and Territorial Road. The project also included replacement of the BNSF Railroad bridge on Larpenteur Avenue west of MN 280; placement of a new

median In statistics and probability theory, the median is the value separating the higher half from the lower half of a data sample, a population, or a probability distribution. For a data set, it may be thought of as "the middle" value. The basic fe ...

on MN 280 from south of Como Avenue to Larpenteur Avenue; and noise walls along MN 280's east side. MN 280 was originally proposed (in the 1960s) to continue farther, turning westward south of its I-94 junction in Saint Paul, and then continuing west into Minneapolis as a freeway running roughly along 28th Street. The route would have continued westbound to about France Avenue South. That freeway was never built, and the ramp stubs at Saint Paul's I-94/MN 280 junction were removed in the early 1980s.

Detour route for I-35W

Because of the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge Collapse in nearby Minneapolis on August 1, 2007, MN 280 was designated by

MnDOT The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT, ) oversees transportation by all modes including land, water, air, rail, walking and bicycling in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The cabinet-level agency is responsible for maintaining the state' ...

as the official detour route for I-35W, resulting in its temporary conversion into a full freeway by closing the intersections at County Road B, Broadway Street, Walnut Street, and Roselawn Avenue. Despite the replacement I-35W bridge's opening on September 18, 2008, many of MN 280's at-grade intersections were not reopened. Plans for a permanent MN 280 reconfiguration were discussing at an open house meeting on October 21, 2008. Construction began in early 2009, along with the replacement for the Larpenteur Avenue/East Hennepin Avenue interchange along MN 280. The construction project was completed in December 2009.

Exit list

References

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External links

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Freeways in the United States Transportation in Ramsey County, Minnesota