Minnesota Department of Transportation

511 Travel Info

Hwy 23—Foley to Milaca

Benton and Mille Lacs counties

Road Safety Audit

Project location map - Foley to Milaca
The final Hwy 23 road safety audit and findings from Foley to Milaca was completed on Sept. 20, 2017.

Final report

The Highway 23 Road Safety Audit and findings is part of a multi-agency effort to improve safety along 16 miles of Highway 23 from Foley to Milaca in Benton and Mille Lacs counties.

Four primary concerns

  1. High speeds
  2. Safe pedestrian and bicycle connectivity and crossings
    in urban areas
  3. High speed rear-end crashes in rural areas
  4. Head-on collisions
Hwy 23 in Foley.

Primary strategies

  • Develop three-lane roadway sections in urban areas
  • Plan for the future cross-section and layouts of the corridor and be ready before any future MnDOT reconstruction occurs
  • Improve pedestrian and bicycle crossing amenities in urban areas
  • Convert selected Highway 23 intersection approach lanes in rural areas from thru/right-turn lane into thru/left-turn lane approaches. Right-turn lanes can be added in the long term
  • Develop raised medians and left turn lanes in urban areas
  • Develop median buffer lanes and centerline rumble strips in rural areas

Background

Hwy 23 Road Safety Audit Team Members do a intersection field review in Foley on June 20, 2017.

The Highway 23 corridor runs from Foley to Milaca and includes the communities of Ronneby, Oak Park, and Foreston. The study corridor is heavily used by commuters to and from St. Cloud during the peak hours, but is even more heavily used by vacation traffic on the summer weekends.

There has been community concerns with safety on the corridor especially in relation to increased speeds and the weekend summer traffic. Most importantly, there has been a marked increase in fatal crashes in 2016 and 2017 on the east side of the City of Foley that have not occurred on the corridor in the past.

To further investigate the corridor issues and community concerns, MnDOT decided to conduct a Road Safety Audit. A road safety audit is performed to identify and document issues and concerns of the roadway environment and to identify potential solutions to improve the safety of the corridor through short term, mid-term, and long-term improvement strategies.Highway 23 Road Safety Audit report (Sept. 20, 2017) 5mb, PDF

Process, timeline

Pre-Audit, data collections; Audit, field review; post-audit, putting it all together

Highway 23 Road Safety Audit 2017
Pre-Audit: Data Collection May 11
Community meeting at Foley Intermediate School: Issues and Concerns June 15
Public Comments Received June 15-30
Audit: Field Reviews June 20 and July 19
Post-Audit: Putting it all together - Road Safety Audit Team Review of Draft Report Aug. 28
Coalition meeting to discuss findings Aug. 30
Community meeting at Foley City Hall Sept. 11
Final completed Road Safety Audit Sept. 20