Dakota County Commissioners Seek Public Input on Transportation Crunch

Editor's Note: Dakota County Commissioner Tom Egan represents Mendota Heights, Lilydale, Mendota and a portion of Eagan. He was elected to office in 2004 and is now serving his second four-year term. Egan will write regularly to Patch readers about county government.

Dakota County provides many services such as our parks and open space and library systems that are very attractive, popular and well used.

But there are a lot of other services in which Dakota County is involved that are not as glamorous yet perhaps even more essential.  One of the systems that the Dakota County Board of Commissioners is currently working on is the 2030 Transportation Plan.

This plan is critically important to maintain the health, safety and welfare of Dakota County residents and businesses ensuring safe and efficient transportation of people and goods within the county.

Through workshops held during 2010 and 2011, the Dakota County Board of Commissioners has been working on revisions to the 2030 Transportation Plan.

Anyone wishing to review the Transportation Plan may visit the Dakota County website and search "2030 Transportation Plan".

At our Board Meeting on Oct. 4, the County Board authorized the Transportation Plan for a .

We also authorized a public hearing on the Plan for Nov. 15, 2011, and we gave authorization to submit the draft Plan to the Metropolitan Council for a 60-day conformance review period.

$1.25 Billion Needed?

The plan must be sensitive to changing revenues, an aging system, alternative modes of transportation such as the Cedar Avenue and Robert Street corridors, demographic changes and continued population and traffic growth.

In the prior 2005-2025 Transportation Plan, we projected $1 billion in needs and $600 million in available revenue, or approximately 60 percent of our needs.

However, in the 2010-2030 Transportation Plan, we project $1.25 billion in needs but only $658 million in revenue, or roughly 53 percent of our needs.

In short, we must accomplish even more with fewer resources. Part of the solution is the full integration of the Transit Plan, i.e., bus rapid transit on Cedar Avenue and a yet-to-be determined mode of transit on the Robert Street Corridor, into the Transportation Plan.  In fact, we are adding an entirely new Transit Chapter into the plan.

What’s at Stake

The Dakota County Board and our Transportation Department have high expectations for our paved highway surface. Our pavement quality indexes will call for a surface condition of fair or better on 95 percent of the county roadway system and good or better on 75 percent of the system. We want no bridge under our jurisdiction to be structurally deficient.

We are heading in the right direction.  In 2004 the pavement quality index was classified as 65 percent good or better and in 2010 it was classified as 85 percent good or better.

All of the Dakota County transportation infrastructure has a limited life span; so all transportation facilities will ultimately need replacement. This includes roadways, bridges and signals. Our county road system has 424 centerline miles of roads with 359 miles (85 percent) being paved and 65 miles (15 percent) being gravel.  Additionally, we have 75 bridges, 250 traffic signals and 25,000 traffic signs.

Final Document Ready in December

In December 2011, staff will make revisions and respond to public comments to the plan, and develop the final document for its submission to the Metropolitan Council for its 60-day review period.  In January and February of 2012, after the Metropolitan Council approval, the Board of Commissioners will consider adoption of the final Transportation Plan.