Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Design-Build

I-494 West Twin Cities Metro design-build completed project

SP 2785-305, Letting 05/14/04

Status

Project complete. Opened to traffic September 2006.

About the project

MnDOT - Metro District (St. Paul/Minneapolis)

The I-494 upgrade corrected deficiencies by:

  • Adding an additional lane in each direction to relieve congestion along the busy corridor
  • Constructing outside shoulders to accommodate Metro Transit buses
  • Constructing median shoulders wide enough for the full length of the project to be used in the future as an additional lane in each direction.

Location

  • Project constructed one additional through-lane in each direction of I-494 from Hwy 5 to I-394, a distance of 7.8 miles, in the cities of Minnetonka and Eden Prairie in Hennepin County
  • Northwest ramp at the Valley View Road interchange was reconstructed
  • Hwy 62 and Hwy 7 interchanges at I-494 were reconstructed

Cost

  • $110 million

Background

I-494 is a principal arterial roadway that serves a key role in the metropolitan highway system as:

  • A collection/distribution facility for other metropolitan area highways
  • An urban bypass for interstate or interregional trips
  • Access to/from the rest of the metropolitan area for the rapidly growing population and employment bases in the southwestern suburbs
  • Access to the metro area from Greater Minnesota

The I-494 pavement in this corridor reached the end of its design life and needed to be replaced. Several bridges along the I-494 corridor needed either deck or total structure replacement and had inadequate vertical clearances between the road surface and the bottom of the bridge.