About District 6

Safety

MnDOT District 6 made significant progress on the District 6 Highway Safety Plan and completed several stand-alone low cost/high benefit safety projects including:

• Intersection and access management safety improvements on Highway 52 in Goodhue and Olmsted counties
• Intersection safety improvements and traffic signal revisions at the Highway 63/6th Street intersection in Stewartville
• Curve signing installation on 50 curves throughout Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue, Houston, Olmsted, Steele and Winona counties
• Intersection lighting at eight rural intersections throughout Goodhue, Mower, Olmsted, Rice and Winona Counties
• Sign upgrades to 247 signs on highways throughout Dodge, Goodhue, Steele and Winona counties
  District 6 also conducted September 2010 flood relief efforts by setting up detour routes, monitoring and inspecting roads and bridges, conducting needed repairs and providing mutual aid to counties and cities.

Mobility

During 2010, Mn/DOT District 6 completed the EIS for the Highway 14 four-lane expansion from Owatonna to Dodge Center and finalized the EA for the Cannon Falls interchange on Highway 52. The Highway 14 four-lane expansion from Owatonna to Dodge Center will enhance system continuity by completing a four-lane system along Highway 14 from Owatonna to Rochester. The Cannon Falls interchange project on Highway 52 will eliminate the only two signals on Highway 52 between Rochester and the Twin Cities.

Innovation

During the 2010 construction season, District 6 packaged multiple projects together to complete simultaneously in an effort to reduce public impact, quickly deliver the projects and reduce costs. District 6 also identified and implemented innovative counter measures to increase seat belt usage, reduce speeding and reduce run-off-the-road crashes through the Southeastern Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths Program. The preliminary data for southeastern Minnesota tentatively shows  several Southeastern Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths regional goals have been or are nearly met. These goals include:

• Reduce traffic fatalities in southeastern Minnesota from the past 3-year average (using 2004-06 data) of 67, down to 55 fatalities by 2012. As of early January, the preliminary fatality numbers show the regional 3-year average (2008-10) to be 56.
• Decrease the number of people severely injured or killed in crashes where speeding has been identified as a contributing factor, from the past 3-year average (2004-06) of 78, down to 60 people. As of 2010, the 3-year average (2007-09) was 60.
• Decrease the number of people severely injured or killed in run-off-the-road crashes from the 3-year average (2004-06) of 105 down to 85 people. As of 2010, the 3-year average (2007-09) was 90.

Leadership

MnDOT District 6 completed the first Transportation Associate (TA) Training Program and hired 50 percent of the graduates, which diversified the qualified candidate pools for full-time transportation generalist maintenance positions.  District 6 also reduced the amount of employee accidents and injuries by more than six percent from 2009 (112 to 105).

Transparency

During summer 2010, District 6 conducted many publically scrutinized repairs on the Winona Bridge and put forth great effort explaining the repairs and emphasizing how they contributed to the bridge’s safety to the public/media. Also in 2010, the District exceeded the minimum public input requirements by holding multiple public/committee meetings throughout both the design and construction phases of projects.