Construction Impacts Maple Grove Business as Highway 610 Nears Completion

A series of orange construction cones and heavy equipment sit outside Monika Hoffmann’s thrift store in Maple Grove. Crews have shut down a stretch of Zachary Lane to work on an addition to Highway 610. The problem is Hoffmann’s store, Earth Exchange, sits on the quarter mile stretch of road that is currently closed.

“The road closure is affecting our business a lot,” Hoffmann said.  “We are noticing a dramatic slow down in business.”

Hoffmann has owned and operated her upscale thrift store inside Zachary Square for ten years and is the only retail shop in the strip mall, the other tenants are mostly churches.

“Our customers are having a hard time getting here,” she said.  There is an alternative route, but Hoffmann says her customers get confused. “We’re going to buy some signs and put those up, but what else can we do other than wait?” 

But waiting is the name of the game when it comes to Highway 610. The project has been discussed since the 1970’s and is slowly being completed, according to Maple Grove’s Traffic Engineer Marc Culver.

“This project goes back 35 years, at that time is was called the Northern Crosstown,” he said. “It has taken decades of planning to get this far, and it is still not finished.”

The current project will add a three mile stretch of road to the existing Highway 610, connecting Highway 169 to County Road 81. Eventually, the plan is to connect Highway 610 to Interstate 94. However, there are no current plans or funds to finish it off.

This section of the project was fast tracked when stimulus money became available a couple years ago. The project has a price tag of $47 million, but $30 million of that was paid for through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. 

Preliminary work began in October of 2009 by Maple Grove construction company C.S. McCrossan. It is anticipated to the new road will be open by July 15.

“The opening of this stretch of roadway is highly anticipated,” Culver said.  “We know a lot of residents use Highway 610, but right now it is difficult to access but that will all change soon.”

Once completed the project should help motorists get around, and maybe even help businesses like Earth Exchange that are feeling the affects of construction.

“We’re holding our breath hoping that when this project is done it gives our business better exposure being right off of a highway, but we’ll just have to wait and see," Hoffmann said.