Having brought up kids there, speed on that road has always been a concern for us. We’ve tried to meet with members of the city at different times and felt like those meetings always just kind of fell on deaf ears. We wanted to come here tonight to kind of see what the direction from the city and county is moving forward to possibly reduce speeds on their roads.”

Eric Peterson

What we’re looking to do with this stage in this meeting is to basically get public opinion, people’s experience. There’s a lot of people out there who have lived here for a long time that see a lot more than we do. We want to hear from them.”

Dakota County Project Manager Bryce Lebrun

Dakota County officials and project engineers heard concerns about traffic speed and safe crossings on Second Street West/Nininger Road, which is also County Road 42 at a public information meeting held Tuesday, Man 23 at the Hastings YMCA.

Potential improvement projects were introduced at the meeting and residents gave feedback on “walking, biking, rolling and driving experiences,” according to Dakota County information on the website seeking feedback on needs in the area. Residents have until Feb. 27 to offer feedback. To do so, visit the Dakota County website (co.dakota.mn.us) and search “Highway 42 Hastings).

In 2021, the Dakota County Pedestrian Crossing Safety Assessment recommend the roadway improvements. The county is now study pedestrian and cycling improvements along Second Street West and the Mississippi River Greenway. Trail and sidewalk improvements on the roadway would be between Lock Boulevard and Pine Street. Greenway improvements would be from Lock Boulevard to the embankment of Lock and Dam No. 2 in Hastings.

Dakota County Project Manager Bryce Lebrun said that the county will take feedback from the meeting and online surveys and make recommendations on what should be done in the area. Another public meeting will be held in the spring when recommendations are prepared.

“We’ll be addressing things we’re hearing about,” said Lebrun. “I’ve heard from a lot of folks that they’re happy we’re having the discussion again. We did have a little bit of engagement from a pedestrian crossing safety assessment project we did recently. It’s a long time coming to see something with crossings, speeds especially. We’ve heard a lot about that and a few other issues. The main ones have been speeds and crossing safety.”

Lebrun said improvements are needed in the area.

“The County Road 42 corridor study was a small component of the Mississippi River Greenway. What we’re looking at is the small portion of the Mississippi Greenway Trail that comes off the county highway and goes down on the embankment. We’re looking at just general improvements. It’s in bad shape and really steep,” Lebrun said. “We’re looking at what we can go to improvement that with the land we have. Then as far as the county highway goes, it’s a study right now. We have traffic data that we’ve collected. We have our existing conditions nailed down. What we’re looking to do with this stage in this meeting is to basically get public opinion, people’s experience. There’s a lot of people out there who have lived here for a long time that see a lot more than we do. We want to hear from them.”

Information put together may result in a series of projects in the area.

“The end goal of the study this spring is to come with some preliminary engineering recommendations for a potential project or projects. Nothing’s programmed yet, and there’s a lot of pieces that have to come together as far as funding, workload, things like that, if anything’s even feasible. Not we know there’s some pedestrian crossing we potentially would like to see improved,” said Lebrun.

Eric Peterson said he’s lived on property that borders County Road 42 for 12 years.

“Having brought up kids there, speed on that road has always been a concern for us. We’ve tried to meet with members of the city at different times and felt like those meetings always just kind of fell on deaf ears. We wanted to come here tonight to kind of see what the direction from the city and county is moving forward to possibly reduce speeds on their roads,” said Peterson. “We want to talk to traffic engineers on our concerns. What’s the goal for 42 moving forward? Is it to be a major artery to get traffic from downtown out west of town or will it just be maintained as a country road.”