I-94 between St. Paul and Mpls. to get new surface

The state's second busiest stretch of roadway, Interstate 94 between downtown St. Paul and downtown Minneapolis, will get a new surface starting this summer.

The 12-mile long segment is badly deteriorated due to years of deferred maintenance and heavy use. Traffic will continue to use I-94 during the two-year construction process that begins in late April. However, Minnesota Department of Transportation metro traffic engineer Scott McBride said the project will disrupt travel.

"We will be doing it in two pieces. East piece first, 280 to the east in 2010 and then the west piece, 280 west in 2011," McBride said. "We do intend to do this under traffic and there will be disruption. You simply cannot work in that corridor without disruption, but we'll keep traffic going as best we can."

McBride says there is not a plan to build a high occupancy vehicle or high occupancy toll lane on I-94.

"At this time we won't be implementing HOV or HOT," he said. "I guess there is what you could call an HOV component, with buses on the shoulder there. The long-term vision is to implement some kind of managed lane HOV/HOT on 94."

McBride said part of the $45 million project includes what MnDOT calls managed lanes to allow buses to travel longer distances on freeway shoulders, reducing travel times for some express bus riders. I-35W through Minneapolis is the state's busiest roadway.