by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
A “weird” intersection west of Rice is on the “fix-it” list of the Stearns County Public Works’ Highway Department, but it might take a lot more time before it’s finally corrected.
The intersection, a kind of forked-road configuration, is west of the Rice bridge. Motorists who cross the bridge from the east can take CR 1 to their left, which leads eventually to Sartell. Or they can go straight ahead, which becomes CR 2, which winds around and leads to St. Stephen. Motorists coming from St. Stephen to Rice or Sartell come upon that same intersection and must stop at a stop sign there.
Sometimes, however, confusion results as, say, a car is coming up from the rise in the road from the Rice bridge, and a car from CR 1 (the road from Sartell) is half into the middle of the intersection waiting for the car from Rice to pass. The motorist at the stop sign is sometimes wary or unsure how to proceed into the intersection.
To motorists who first see that intersection, it’s as if some kind of earthquake had happened long ago, stretching the middle of the intersection much wider than it had to be, as if there is an extra road somewhere in the middle of it that makes no sense.
“We’ve talked about it,” said Stearns County Highway Engineer Jodi Teich. “We’ve wondered how we can fit it in, and we’ve been figuring out how we could do (fix) it.”
The trouble is, acquiring right-of-way acquisitions would be a complicated problem to fix it, she said. Not to mention, a lack of enough money to go around, meaning many worthy fix-it projects must be placed on a waiting list.
The “weird” intersection has been that way for many years.
“It’s before my time, I know that,” Teich said. “I’ve been with the highway department for 17 years.”
Teich said there is a similar “weird” intersection near Cold Spring at CR 2 and CR 50. That one, she said, will be fixed by putting in a roundabout.
Scott Jerve, who lives on a road very near that intersection, also is not sure when the goofy intersection was constructed, but he wishes it could be fixed. Although he and the highway department are not aware of any fatalities there, Jerve believes it’s a bad accident waiting to happen.
Jerve explained why:
“If someone’s coming from St. Stephen, they come to the stop sign and most blow through it,” he said. “Sometimes a car is coming from Sartell, and as it gets to the middle of the intersection, there can be one or more cars coming up the hilly road from Rice doing 60 miles. The car from Sartell wants to turn left to get to the road to St. Stephen. That car has to go around or behind the one stuck in the middle of the intersection.”
Jerve said it could be fixed by remaking that intersection into right angles, like most intersections, eliminating the forked-road confusion.
Jerve has talked to the county highway department about it, but he’s afraid someone might get killed before anything is done.
The highway department maintains 970 miles of county roads in Stearns County, Teich said, and it never waits for a “death” to happen before determining to do or fix a road or intersection, although clearly dangerous ones do get priority.
This is the “weird” forked-road intersection west of the Rice bridge. The road straight ahead winds eventually to St. Stephen. The road to the left ahead leads to Sartell. The area between the roads is a kind of no-man’s land that makes motorists’ choices at the intersection a bit confusing.
