| US 169 | |||
| Get started | Elmore | ||
| End | Virginia | ||
| Length | 355 mi | ||
| Length | 571 km | ||
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According to watchtutorials, US 169 is a US Highway in the US state of Minnesota. The road forms a north-south route in the state and is a freeway in the Minneapolis metropolitan area. The total route is 571 kilometers long.
Travel directions
Mile 1, just after the Iowa border.
Southern Minnesota
At Elmore, US 169 crosses the Iowa – Minnesota border and heads north. After barely 20 kilometers you cross the Interstate 90 at Blue Earth. I-90 runs from Sioux Falls to La Crosse. Then US 169 continues north through an area with many lakes. After 60 kilometers you reach the town of Mankato, where you cross US 14, which runs from Brookings in South Dakota to Rochester. From here, US 169 is a 2×2 lane main road. The road parallels the Minnesota River to the southern suburbs of Minneapolis.
Minneapolis-St. Paul
The US 169 freeway.
The highway starts on the west side of the suburb of Shakopee and forms the bypass of this city. One then crosses the Minnesota River and US 169 forms the border between the suburbs of Eden Prairie and Bloomington. Here are 2×2 lanes available. The highway then crosses the Interstate 494 ring road and then crosses a business park. In Edina, one crosses US 212, a short highway to Eden Prairie, and SR-62, an east-west link from Minnetonka to Mendota Heights. After that, 2×2 lanes will also be available and the highway will run through the suburbs of Hopkins, Minnetonka and St. Louis Park. At an office park one crosses Interstate 394, the western exit road from the center ofMinneapolis. Thereafter, 2×2 lane US 169 forms the boundary between the suburb of Plymouth and the suburbs of Golden Valley and New Hope. In Brooklyn Park one then crosses Interstate 94, the main east-west highway of the metropolitan area. Not far after that, the highway section ends and US 169 continues north and intersects with SR-610, the highway to Coon Rapids. One then crosses the Mississippi River and arrives in the last suburb of Anoka.
Northern Minnesota
US 169 is then temporarily double-numbered with US 10 up to Elk River, after which US 169 runs north as a four-lane highway, towards Mille Lac, a large lake in central Minnesota. There are no major highways crossing here on the route. One reaches the city of Grand Rapids well north of Minneapolis, where one crosses US 2, the road from Bemidji to Duluth. Then US 169 branches east and ends in Virginia on US 53, the road from Duluth to International Falls on the border with Canada.
History
According to Citypopulationreview, US 169 was created in 1930. The northern terminus at the time was the border with Canada at International Falls. In 1934 the terminus was changed to US 53 at Virginia.
From the 1960s, US 169 between Mankato and the Twin Cities was widened to a 2×2 divided highway, a process that continued into the 1970s. This was one of two major corridors in Minnesota that was widened to 2×2 lanes at the time because no Interstate Highway was planned (the other was US 52 to Rochester).
Before 1984, an approximately 80-kilometre stretch from Elk City to the north was widened to 2×2 lanes. In the early 1990s, this was extended further to Mille Lacs Lake. This widening was mainly to accommodate tourist traffic. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the northern portion of US 169 between Pengilly and Virginia was widened to 2×2 lanes, primarily due to the extensive mining industry in the area.
Twin Cities
US 169 is a freeway in the Twin Cities, from the suburb of Shakopee to Brooklyn Park, forming a north-south highway through the west of the metropolitan area. Originally, US 169 ran on what is now State Route 100, which runs parallel to US 169. This already existed as a highway before the current US 169. Even before that, US 169 ran through downtown Minneapolis, on the route that is now I-94 north of downtown. US 169 moved to SR-100 in the late 1970s and to its current route in the 1990s, gradually moving the route westward.
As early as the 1960s, the first grade-separated intersections were built on the route, which was gradually converted into a highway. The section between I-394 and I-94 was completed in the 1970s. For quite some time there was a missing link in the suburb of Hopkins, this was only closed around 1987. In the mid-1990s, US 169 was built as a highway around Shakopee, including a new bridge over the Minnesota River. Part of the route through Eden Prairie was graded in 2006 and a redesigned interchange with I-494 opened on November 30, 2012. In early 2012, also opened a connection with Bottineau Boulevard and a cloverleaf with State Route 610. The intersection with 7th Street was replaced in 2014 by a junction, extending US 169 as a freeway from I-494 to State Route 610.
Between January and September 2017, US 169 between 7th Street and Bren Road in Hopkins/Edina was completely demolished in 9 months and rebuilt with a new bridge over Nine Mile Creek. The project cost $64 million and the highway reopened on September 27, 2017.
Traffic intensities
Traffic intensities are not that high in Eden Prairie with 60,000 vehicles. This adds up to 86,000 vehicles on 2×2 lanes in Minnetonka. This increases to 105,000 vehicles off I-394. In Plymouth, this drops to 81,000 vehicles.
