MnDOT Aims for Safety with Cass Lake Highway 2 Study

A portion of Highway 2 in Cass Lake may look different in the next few years.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is looking at possibly conducting a study of the highway between the Cedar Lakes Casino and the rest area. MnDOT is collaborating with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe to ensure the needs of the community are being met.

Three options were presented for the public to comment on. MnDOT finds the public feedback to be important for the possible study, as the outcome would impact not only those behind the wheel.

“We’ve heard lots of concerns from the community, so what we did here at MnDOT is, one of the tools in our toolbox is to do a corridor study or a planning vision, so that’s why we’re conducting this is looking at identifying corridor concepts or alternative designs of the highway to ensure that, well, sort of the complete street’s vision of all the different modes of traffic and people that travel through and within Cass Lake can get around safely,” said project manager Jon Mason.

The public survey for the study options is now closed. Once the design concepts are further refined, MnDOT hopes to have a recommended option by June of this year.