The Minnesota County Engineers Association and their Safety Committee awarded Polk County the Highway Safety Achievement Award on Thursday, January 23, 2025. Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders was on hand to receive the award. The Highway Safety Achievement Award recognizes and promotes leadership that values and implements traffic safety programs, plans, and projects impacting their community.
This award was given for the work done to construct the first roundabout in Polk County. The roundabout was constructed at the intersection of County Road 21 & Highway 75, North of Crookston, hoping to reduce the number of accidents that had occurred at that intersection over the years. “The roundabout itself, the thought about putting in a roundabout at that location, started back in 2020 thereabouts,” says Sanders. “MNDOT and I were having discussions about the intersection. First thoughts, we knew there was an issue with that intersection when it came to crashes.”
The issues with the intersection started long before any thoughts of a roundabout occurred. Sanders said that, back in 2007 and 2008, they really started looking for ways to fix the skew of the road. “We went to the County Board thinking that if we just realigned 75 to County Rd. 21 to come in at a 90 degree, that that would be our first option,” says Sanders. “Back then, they didn’t really want to spend a lot of money on that intersection and asked if there was a lower-cost solution.” Sanders says that after talking to MNDOT, they then put in a Rural Intersection Conflict Warning System. The flashing lights warning of oncoming traffic were up for between 8 to 10 years, and Sanders says traffic just got so used to them that they were becoming ineffective, and accidents were once again happening at the intersection in a more frequent interval.
So, in 2020, talks of realigning the roadway started again as Sanders said something needed to be done. “I said, well if we are going to realign the roadway, let’s put in a roundabout, and then we don’t have to worry about t-bone crashes at all,” says Sanders. “MNDOT agreed, and so Polk County became the project lead.”
In designing the roundabout, Sanders said that they had to consider all the different vehicles that travel on those roads. “One of the major vehicles was Transystems semis that haul sugarbeets from Warren down to Crookston,” says Sanders. “So, we designed the roundabout to make sure it, along with all the farm traffic, school buses, and everything else, could go through that roundabout safely and not have issues when trying to get through it.”
The intersection of Trunk Highway 75 and County State Aid Highway 21, North of Euclid, was closed to through traffic starting in early July of 2024 so Gladen Construction, out of Laporte, could start work on their contract to construct the roundabout. The timeline set by Sanders was to have the roundabout open to traffic by October 1, 2024. “We had in the contract that it had to be open by October 1,” says Sanders. “ The reason why is sugarbeet harvest goes full-blown on October 1, and we wanted to make sure that that intersection was open so we weren’t detouring sugarbeet traffic at that time.”
As it can be many years in Minnesota, the weather played a factor at the start of the project. “By the way the weather went, a little wet to begin with, but then it dried up,” says Sanders. “The contractor was able to get to work, and we actually opened the roundabout on October 1.”
Sanders says that so far, the glitches with the roundabout have been pretty minor and are just more of a learning curve for drivers. “Of course, traffic in our area hasn’t seen a roundabout, or if you have, it’s been in more of an urban setting,” says Sanders. “So, I’ve only heard of two little glitches that have happened. One was because the railroad tracks are on the East side of the roundabout. We have about 200 feet of pavement between the railroad tracks and the roundabout, and the first train that went through, people had to realize actually how to pull up and park, and so the roundabout was plugged for a little while.” Sanders says the second issue was on Christmas Eve; there was some blowing and drifting snow on the roundabout, and a Transystem truck got stuck. To Sanders’s knowledge, there have not been any issues at the roundabout since.
Sanders says he is very proud of the roundabout and is thankful for the many entities that played a part in completing the project. “I’m very proud of receiving the Highway Safety Achievement Award from the Minnesota County Engineers and their Safety Committee,” says Sanders. “You do your job; you are trying to make your roads safer for the residents of Polk County and the people that drive in Polk County, and you do a project such as this, a more complex one, which is the roundabout and everything we had to go through to get it constructed and your mentors recognize that and give you an award.”
As one would guess, when an award is given, many times, there are people in the background that need to be mentioned and congratulated as well. “I’m proud of the people that work at my office. My Assistant, Darin Carlstrom, did a lot of work to make this roundabout happen,” says Sanders. “I had the main technician out on the job Ryan Wagner from Crookston, who did a great job of making sure the contractor built it the way the plans are; Jeff Coon from Widseth down in Alex probably pulled a lot of his hair out trying to get this design done through MNDOTs geometrics and then the MNDOT District stepped up and helped us out with some survey work, some testing work and making sure that everything being done up there as well, was constructed the way they expect their MNDOT projects to be constructed.”
Congratulations to Polk County and Polk County Engineer Richard Sanders, and thank you for making the roads safer for Polk County residents and all who travel through Polk County.
