Shady Oak Road (CSAH 61) Reconstruction

SRF provided preliminary and final design, wetland delineation, permitting, and right of way acquisition services for the two-phase Shady Oak Road (CSAH 61) project. Although the project was in the capital improvement plans for both the City of Eden Prairie and Hennepin County, the timeline was accelerated by United Health Group’s (UHG) new offices.

SRF designed upgrades to the TH 62/ Shady Oak Road and TH 212/ Shady Oak Road interchanges, with Shady Oak Road being converted from a four-lane roadway to a four-lane divided roadway and right- and left-turn lanes provided at the intersections. Off-road trails were also added to both sides of Shady Oak Road to improve pedestrian and bicycle traffic connectivity. In addition to the capacity, safety, and ADA/PROWAG improvements along Shady Oak Road, a roundabout was constructed on City West Parkway at the intersection of the new UHG entrance. SRF also coordinated with the Nine Mile Creek watershed district to improve the stormwater conveyance and treatment within the project area.

Traffic Engineering. Early in the planning stages of the project, SRF prepared an interchange study that examined 18 different concepts and evaluated them based on capacity, level of service, right of way acquisition needs, and cost. The study was key in bringing multiple agencies together to support this project, including the City of Eden Prairie, Hennepin County, MnDOT, and the Metropolitan Council. Subsequently, we designed several traffic signals and developed signal timing adjustments to optimize increased traffic flows. Temporary signals were installed to facilitate traffic during construction.

SRF collected traffic data, developed and calibrated Synchro/SimTraffic models of existing traffic operations for both corridors, evaluated left turn phasing for flashing yellow arrow movements, developed optimized timing plans, and implemented and fine-tuned the optimized plans in the field over the course of several days. During the development of the timing plans, cross coordination was analyzed for the two corridors, along with accommodation of the ramp movements at three interchanges.

Synchro/SimTraffic model outputs were used to evaluate the benefit of the optimized timing plans. A comparison was made between the before-and-after scenarios; measures of effectiveness included delay, stops, fuel consumption, and emissions. These metrics were compared to the cost of implementation resulting in a one-year benefit-cost ratio of 35:1. Project features included:

• Turning movement and ADT Tube count data collection
• Front page (yellow, all-red, walk, flashing do not walk) signal timing parameter updates
• Time-of-day left-turn phasing evaluation for flashing yellow arrow left-turn movements
• Arterial and ramp interchange coordinated signal timing plan development
• Timing plan field implementation and fine-turning
• Econolite signal controller hardware direct connect and manual programming
• Econolite Aries management software programming and dial-up interconnect data transfer
• Synchro/SimTraffic before vs. after measures of effectiveness evaluation
• Benefit/cost analysis

Real Estate. SRF’s real estate team provided the City with right of way services for the acquisitions of several complex commercial properties – this required a significant amount of communication between the SRF team and the City of Eden Prairie.  Our services included appraisals, review appraisals, offer package preparation, negotiations, and condemnation assistance. SRF teamed with another firm for the appraisals. There were 28 parcels impacted by the project.

Construction Administration. SRF provided full construction administration services for both Phase I and Phase II. These services included:

• Contract administration
• Construction observation
• Construction staking
• Materials testing
• Permit compliance
• Traffic control and staging