By Joseph Marks, staff writer

The preliminary plan to expand Bridge Avenue, Albert Lea’s major north-south corridor, could take up to 20 years to implement, county and city officials said. Then again, if the right developers get involved, implementation could speed up drastically.

The implementation plan recommended by a November 2005 study involves expanding most of Bridge Avenue to a four-lane divided road with turn lanes at key intersections. The study was performed by SRF Consulting Group Inc., a company with offices in Minneapolis.

County Engineer Sue Miller said expanding the entire avenue could take up to 20 years, but the county and city may be ready to begin work on some portions of the road by 2008.

The study, which cost approximately $40,000, examined current issues of safety, traffic flow and access on Bridge Avenue from Main Street in the south to Interstate 90 in the north.

At a December 2005 meeting, city councilors and county commissioners discussed a long-range plan to gain right of way along Bridge Avenue as it becomes available to facilitate the future expansion.

&8220;We have a great east-west corridor in this town, County Commissioner Dave Mullenbach said at the meeting, &8220;but we need a good north-south corridor.&8221;

That time frame could get a jump-start if a developer purchases the Blazing Star Landing, also known as the former Farmland meatpacking site, or other critical property along the corridor, Miller said.

&8220;The benefit of having a plan like this is we know what our goals are and when a developer comes to us, we have something to show them,&8221; Miller said.

Miller said the Bridge Avenue plans fit in with plans to rehabilitate Albert Lea’s downtown. As the city works to bring businesses in along the lakeshore, she said, the city can obtain right of way to expand those portions of Bridge Avenue.

Miller said the county and city envision having a planted median along the lakeshore portion of Bridge Avenue and, likely, along the entire length of the road. She said a more attractive lakeshore area would draw boats and other lake vehicles from Albert Lea Lake toward Fountain Lake and downtown Albert Lea.

The Bridge Avenue study was performed at the request of city and county officials. The county contributed approximately $15,000 to the cost of the study and the city contributed about $10,000, City Engineer Steven Jahnke said. The Minnesota Department of Transportation donated $5,000 to the project.

Jahnke and Miller conducted input sessions with a citizen’s advisory committee to learn the public’s concerns about the corridor and collected data on average speeds, accident rates and traffic volumes, which they supplied to the consulting group for the study.

&8220;Traffic volumes on Bridge Avenue are currently 7,500 to 10,700 vehicles per day,&8221; the study states. &8220;All two-lane segments of Bridge Avenue are from a planning-level analysis operating at or over capacity.&8221;

The study estimates daily traffic in the year 2025 will increase from 11,000 to 21,000 vehicles per day.

The number of minor access points, primarily driveways, that let onto Bridge Avenue, increases congestion, according to the study, and leads to increased crashes.

A study of crash record between January of 2001 and December of 2003 recorded 164 crashes, 36 percent of them at intersections with traffic signals and 64 percent at intersections with stop signs at the intersecting street. The study stated the severity of the crashes was usually low and no fatalities occurred during the three-year period.

A long term plan for the corridor would attempt to reduce access points to Bridge Avenue, perhaps by constructing a parallel frontage road which homeowners could back onto and access Bridge from an intersection, Jahnke said.

These frontage roads would function similarly to those on East Main Street near Interstate 35.

Miller said expansion work on portions of Bridge Avenue would reduce some of the congestion but traffic and safety issues are likely to bottleneck on the un-expanded portions of the avenue until the entire expansion is complete.