MnDOT Holds Open House On Future Of Highway 371 in Brainerd Area

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is in the planning stages of a road project that they say will improve access and safety at three intersections along a busy stretch of Highway 371 in the Brainerd Lakes Area.

The project is not planned to take place until 2022, but MnDOT held an open house Tuesday to inform the community of the major project in the works. The estimated $6 million project will be installing Reduced Conflict Intersections, also known as J-Turns, at Gull Lake Dam Road, Birchdale Road, which is the entrance to Brainerd International Raceway, and Green Gables Road along Highway 371.

“We’re looking at the whole segment, not just isolated intersections, the whole segment in that area, that one mile stretch, to improve the safety essentially through that area. Everybody realizes that there is something that needs to be done in this area, and that’s why this project is going forward. It’s just a matter of what it’s going to look like in the end is kind of the concern,” said MnDOT project manager Luke Wehseler.

More information about the project can be found on MnDOT’s website at mndot.gov/d3/projects.