Brainerd Approves New Roundabout at South 6th/Willow Street Intersection

The Brainerd City Council has approved the construction of a roundabout at the intersection South 6th and Willow streets in Brainerd.

The project will begin in 2025. Brainerd has received $750,000 from a highway safety improvement grant, but the city will still have to account for the remainder of the funding for the project.

Many factors went into deciding whether a roundabout would be the best option for the intersection, with safety being the biggest factor.

“The nice thing about a roundabout is it takes away some of the really bad types of crashes where at a streetlight, you potentially can still have the T-bone crashes, which is a majority of what we see now,” said Brainerd City Engineer and Public Works Director Jessie Dehn. A roundabout almost eliminates T-bone crashes.”

With the project still a ways away, a detour plan has not been finalized. Dehn believes that a full street closure would be the best route at this time.