Hwy 169 / Hwy 81 Overpass completed

Devil of a traffic problem is fixed

Excerpt:

A $50 million exorcism of the notorious "devil's triangle'' of traffic delays and crashes in the northwest metro is down to the finishing touches on a new up-and-over bridge on Hwy. 169.

A quarter mile of Hwy. 169 through Brooklyn Park and Osseo has been rebuilt on piers that now take the highway over traffic signals at Hwy. 81 and N. 85th Avenue that once intersected Hwy. 169 in a nightmarish triangle.

The triangle was known for trying delays, rear-end collisions and even fatalities. Driver tempers flared in the 20, sometimes 30, minutes it took at rush hour to inch along Hwy. 169 through the two signals at Hwy. 81 and 85th Avenue. Compounding the delays, an occasional freight train would roll across 169, bringing traffic to a halt.

The project -- four years in the making -- unclogs another of the Twin Cities' biggest traffic bottlenecks, one that 56,000 vehicles travel through daily.

Comment: Earlier posts on project:

• Speaking of the Highway 169 Triangle (Jan 10,2010)
  
• Hwy 169 / Hwy 81 completion date Fall 2011 (July 13, 2009)
  
• Hwy 169 "the devil's triangle" redo delayed (December 15, 2006)
  

Comment: A vast improvement.