The Senate’s transportation committee on Thursday heard a bill that would begin the process of studying the construction of an interchange at I-35 and County Road 9, a project that has been discussed for more than 10 years. 

“It is well past time to get this project off the ground,” said Senator John Jasinski (R-Faribault),. “The north end of Faribault has seen rapid growth, with Aldi, Saint-Gobain/SageGlass, Trystar, Daikin, and Faribault Foods among the businesses that have completed expansions. Nearly all of the existing industrial park land is now in use, and the city is looking for more areas to grow. An interchange at County Road 9 will help us maximize our opportunity for economic growth. This is just the start. The interchange will not be built overnight, but the sooner we get the ball rolling, the sooner the interchange will become a reality.”

The bill would appropriate $500,000 to begin a jurisdictional realignment study to examine the estimated construction costs, traffic modeling, environmental analysis, and a potential design layout for an interchange. A jurisdictional realignment study would include trunk highway corridor 3 and trunk highway corridor 21 as well, increasing the project’s chances of securing MnDOT approval.