Minnesota State Highway 100

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Trunk Highway 100
Maintained by MnDOT
Length: 15 mi (24 km)
Formed: 1934
South end: in Bloomington
North end: in Brooklyn Center
Minnesota State Highways
< TH 99 TH 101 >

Minnesota State Highway 100 is a highway in Minnesota. It is 15 miles (24 km) in length. The southern end of the highway is at Interstate 494 in Bloomington, Minnesota. It runs north to Interstate 694 in Brooklyn Center. The southern roadway continues as Normandale Boulevard, also known as Hennepin County Highway 34. At the north end, the main line merges with I-694.

Contents

[edit] Routing as a beltway

Highway 100 was originally meant as a beltway around the Twin Cities (presumably the reason for the round number), and actually achieved that status for about 20 years in the mid-20th century (although it wasn't a freeway).

All of current Highway 100 was in the original route. Starting from the current southern terminus, Highway 100 overlapped eastward with a pre-494 Highway 5 past the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport to its intersection with Highway 55. Highway 100 then continued east concurrent with Highway 55 over the Mendota Bridge, then along current Highway 110 through Mendota Heights, then following current I-494 across the Mississippi River and turning north onto Century Avenue in Woodbury, which feeds into current Highway 120 north of Interstate 94. Old Highway 100 then turned west upon County Road F and north along White Bear Avenue to meet up with and overlapped westward with Highway 96 (the section of which is now turned over to county maintenance). Old Highway 100 then turned south briefly along U.S. Highway 8 (now a town-maintained street), then carried on westward along the current routing of I-694 to meet back at its current northern terminus.

Due to traffic pattern changes over the years, it is no longer possible to 100% directly follow the path of old 100. Small detours are necessary which involve the use of Exits 40 and 60 of the present I-494/694 beltway.

[edit] Lilac Way

A historic view of Lilac Park with a rock garden and an ornamental pool. The inset shows one of the beehive grills.
A historic view of Lilac Park with a rock garden and an ornamental pool. The inset shows one of the beehive grills.

The original construction of Highway 100 started in 1935, as a New Deal project. The project was a cooperative venture between the Works Progress Administration and the Minnesota Highway Department, and was the largest WPA project in the state. The demand for the highway came out of growing pains in the Twin Cities during the 1920s, when Minneapolis city streets were congested and suburban roads were poorly maintained dirt roads. The plan for a beltway around the Twin Cities incorporated existing roads, both paved and unpaved. A new section of highway, between Minnesota State Highway 5 (now I-494 & Hwy. 5) in Edina and then-U.S. 52 (now County Road 81) in Robbinsdale was needed to complete the beltway. As such, it was planned as a state-of-the-art highway, with two lanes in each direction separated by wide medians, bridges at major intersections and railroad crossings, and the first cloverleaf interchanges in Minnesota.

Carl Graeser, the highway engineer, and Arthur Nichols, a landscaper, teamed up to design the highway. A large number of WPA workers worked on the construction of the highway. Since the WPA was designed to keep a large number of workers busy, a lot of hand digging was done as opposed to using bulldozers. Cloverleaf interchanges were built at Minnesota State Highway 7, U.S. Highway 12 (now I-394), and Minnesota State Highway 55 (Olson Highway).

The landscaping of the highway was meant to give the highway a parkway-like experience. As such, it was built with a wider right-of-way than the typical highway. The Golden Valley Garden Club supported efforts to plant lilacs along the highway, and the Minneapolis Journal coined the name "Lilac Way". Eventually, 7000 lilacs were planted. In addition, the builders built five wayside parks along the way. These parks were intended for picnicking and featured stone picnic tables, beehive barbecues, waterfalls, and so on. These fixtures provided work for local stonemasons, as another part of the WPA project. The western leg was completed in 1940, but further construction on the beltway was halted with the United States' entry into World War II. An extension from then-Highway 52 (now 81) in Robbinsdale to U.S. Route 10 (near present day I-35W) in New Brighton was built with federal aid to provide access to industrial areas as an asset to the manufacture of "essential war materials".

A picnic area shown in a 1939 view of Lilac Park.
A picnic area shown in a 1939 view of Lilac Park.

Graeser Park in Robbinsdale and the St. Louis Park Roadside Park (near the southeast corner of Highway 100 and Highway 7) are the only remaining roadside parks from the 1930s that are still mostly intact after widening of Highway 100.

The beltline was not completed until 1950. At that point, demand from the baby boom led to rapid growth in the suburbs.

[edit] Recent construction

Conversion of the remaining portion of the road into a freeway is complete. As of 2005, all construction has finished on the northern portion between Interstate 394 and I-694, making Highway 100 a freeway for its entire length, though the section between Highway 7 and I-394, the oldest part of the freeway, is on long-term plans to be widened to kill a nasty traffic bottleneck.

In 2006, a 'temporary' third lane was built in St. Louis Park, between Excelsior Boulevard and Cedar Lake Road. This section of the highway, which was two lanes, has been a bottleneck for many years. Creating the third lane involved narrowing the left and right shoulders while retaining the existing bridges of the Twin Cities and Western Railroad, Southwest LRT Trail (formerly the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway), Minnesota State Highway 7, and Minnetonka Boulevard (County Road 5). The cloverleaf interchange at Highway 7 was rebuilt with signalized intersections on Highway 7 in a semi-folded diamond interchange. Unfortunately, a small bottleneck around the MN 7/CR 25 interchange remains southbound.

Permanent reconstruction was slated to begin in 2010, which would replace and widen the existing bridges, but because of cutbacks in funding, that project has been pushed back to 2014.

With the upgrade of the freeway between 36th Ave and Brooklyn Blvd, MN 100 incidentally has both the newest and oldest (the segment of freeway between Excelsior Blvd and I-394) freeway in the Twin Cities.

[edit] Communities along the route

[edit] Exit list

The entire route is in Hennepin County.

Destinations Notes
I-494 / TH 5 – Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
Industrial Boulevard, West 77th Street
West 70th Street
TH 62
Benton Avenue Southbound exit and northbound entrance
Eden Avenue, Vernon Avenue, West 50th Street
CR 3 (Excelsior Boulevard)
West 36th Street
TH 7 west / CR 25 east
CR 5 (Minnetonka Boulevard)
West 25 1/2 Street, Cedar Lake Road, Westside Drive Northbound exit signed 25 1/2 St and Cedar Lake Road; Southbound exit signed Westside Dr and Cedar Lake Road
I-394 – Minneapolis
CR 40 (Glenwood Avenue)
TH 55 A SPUI interchange
CR 66 (Duluth Street)
36th Avenue North
CR 9 (42nd Avenue North)
CR 81 Access from TH 100 north to CR 81 south and CR 81 north to TH 100 south is via CR 9
France Avenue
CR 152 (Brooklyn Boulevard) / Xerxes Avenue
CR 10 (57th Avenue North) / John Martin Drive
To I-94 to I-694 west / Humboldt Avenue Northbound exit and southbound entrance
I-694 east Northbound exit and southbound entrance

[edit] References

[edit] External links