Minnesota has approximately 7,000 miles of two-lane, two-way roadways that are affected by 2014 Laws of Minnesota, Chapter 312, Article 11, Section 36. As a result of the study required by this legislation, the speed limit was increased to 60 miles per hour on 5,240 miles (77 percent) of the two-lane state highway system. MnDOT previously increased speeds to 60 miles per hour on 1,550 mile of two-lane highways. When all of the speed limit signs are installed, 81 percent of the two-lane, two-way state highways will have a posted speed limit of 60 miles per hour. Of the nearly 7,000 miles studied, about 5,000 of these miles crossed the borders of different Minnesota Department of Transportation districts and required coordination with the districts to conduct a speed study. A schedule of miles to be studied by year and district was developed for these 5,000 or so miles and is shown in Appendix C. The remaining 2,000 miles did not cross MnDOT district boundaries and the timeline for their study was left to the discretion of the district. All Minnesota two-lane roadways with a current speed limit of 55 miles per hour were identified and then divided into two categories: coordinated routes and discretionary routes based on whether the roadway crossed a MnDOT district boundary. The coordinated routes were distributed over the 5-year study period, taking care to schedule the same highway in the same year across district borders. Knowing that the 2014 study period would be shortened because of the timing of the law and the need to set expectations and procedures for a 5-year study, year one (2014) was assigned fewer miles than the remaining years in the study. Although the initial plan included studying more roadways within 2014, the short timeframe only allowed for the study of approximately 65 percent of the planned coordinated routes and 30 percent of the discretionary routes. To date, 100 percent of all routes originally proposed for the 5-year project were studied and authorized – 100 percent of all coordinated routes are complete and 100 percent of all discretionary routes are complete. The winter and spring months will be used to install regulatory signs. (Author/publisher)
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