---

Close to 100 people attended this week’s Monday night public information session about the Highway 8 study.   The Chisago Lakes Area Library Community Room was standing room only as state Department of Transportation project managers updated the community. A second session was presented Wednesday this week in Taylors Falls.

The Highway 8 stretch from Karmel Avenue (All Ways Automotive) in Chisago City east to the Wisconsin border is 14 miles of challenges.  It is being scrutinized for potential improvement now as the state has a surfacing project already on the calendar for 2032,  and MNDOT staff explained the idea is to identify work that needs to happen prior to or concurrent with this attention.  

This eastern half segment of the highway is separate from the major improvements in capacity and safety already on-deck for the west part of Highway 8.

Timing and coordinating projects is critical and certain to be tricky.  The Forest Lake/Wyoming to Chisago City improvements have a couple more years to become final. Meeting goers were reminded the west end of the highway is up against a clock, considering the bridge replacement over the St Croix at Osceola is a factor,  as well as round-about installations at #243 in Franconia leading to this bridge and a round-about at Redwing Avenue in Shafer— which is funded and scheduled for 2029.

The state provided colored stickers and maps for the audience to express their preferences for certain projects. Printouts with lots of stickers attached show either strong like, or dislike. The state is gauging how commuters feel towards round-abouts, flashing beacon crosswalks, raised medians, bumpouts for crossings by pedestrians, adding off road trails, signal timing  changes, rumble strips and passing lanes, among other elements.  Probably the project promising the most impact and getting feedback  is the round-about being looked at for the Taylors Falls Highway 8 and Bench Street (Highway 95) intersection.

The state has a website survey open now to encourage “stakeholder engagement.”  

Search Highway 8 https://talk.dot.state.mn.us

---