Constitutional route

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This sign, at a rest area on Interstate 35 just north of the Iowa border, describes the process that went into creating Minnesota's highway system.

In the U.S. state of Minnesota, a constitutional route (CR) is a highway that was defined as part of the Babcock Amendment, which altered the Minnesota State Constitution when it was approved in the election of November 2, 1920. Seventy routes were enumerated, and all of them were listed in the constitution until a 1974 rewrite. Though they are now listed separately in §161.114 of the Minnesota Statutes, the definitions are legally considered to be part of the constitution, and cannot be altered or removed without an amendment. These roadways are complemented by legislative routes (LRs), which can simply be altered by enacting new laws.

In many cases, the constitutional route numbers do not match the highway numbers known to the public. In fact, it has been common for CR highways to be composed of several different trunk highways. When the U.S. Highway system was created in 1926, many of these roads were made up of one or more U.S. highways. Today, they now use a mix of Minnesota state highways, U.S. highways, and Interstate highways.

Constitutional Route 1 is currently one of the most complex routes, composed of:

U.S. Highway 65 from the Iowa border to Albert Lea, Minnesota
Interstate 35 to Faribault
Minnesota State Highway 3 and MN-149 to Saint Paul
U.S. Highway 61 to Wyoming
Minnesota State Highway 23 through Hinckley
the MN-73/27 loop through Moose Lake
the MN-210/45 loop through Carlton
and Interstate 35 to Duluth

However, the route can be considered to be superseded along almost its entire length by Interstate 35 (and I-35E).

In contrast, Minnesota State Highway 1 is composed of Legislative Route 173, Constitutional Route 33, LR-170, LR-166, and LR-160.

There is some ambiguity in how literally the Minnesota Department of Transportation must interpret the constitutional routes. In some cases, the routes no longer directly serve communities they were once designated for, but are routed along nearby Interstates instead.