Eagan Planning "Ring Road" Celebration

It’s not your standard drive-thru, but the price is right.

The Mayor and City Council will be serving up free coffee and donuts next Tuesday, Nov. 15. The goodies are being given out to motorists driving over the Duckwood Drive Bridge beginning at 8:30 a.m to celebrate the completion and opening of that project. The Duckwood Drive Bridge completes a 20-year desire to create a “ring road” over I-35 in Eagan.

 “The event on the 15th emphasizes getting to the finish line,” said Eagan City Administrator Tom Hedges in a press release. “This has been a transportation priority for City Councils since 1991, and provides a safer and faster route for emergency responders, and for the public making trips for food, fuel, lodging in Eagan hotels or attending local colleges like or .”

According to the press release, more than 60,000 drivers go through the Yankee Doodle and Pilot Knob intersection daily making it the second busiest intersection in Dakota County. The Duckwood Drive overpass, together with the 2008 opening of Northwood Parkway Bridge, completes a ring road that will enable pedestrians and motorists to more easily navigate their way to sections of Eagan divided by I-35 and provide other options to avoid congestion.

 “Anything we can do to assist local traffic, pedestrians and bicyclists to get to their destination quicker and more safely is not only good for Eagan residents, but good for our local businesses too,” says Public Works Director Tom Colbert.

The approximate 3-mile loop has been a city desire for the last 20 years and the Nov. 15 opening will complete a circuit that includes Denmark Avenue, Northwood Parkway, Central Parkway, Federal Drive and Duckwood Drive.

A special 8:15 a.m. event will feature a special “fun run” and other surprises that will include the Mayor and other city officials as well as business on either side of the bridge in friendly competitions. Those events will be followed by the free coffee and donuts supplied by and to drive-by motorists while supplies last.

According to the press release, the 365-foot Duckwood bridge span involved 46 miles worth of reinforcing rebar and another 1,300 tons of concrete and beams, equal to 250 elephants. The Duckwood Overpass and adjacent road realignments cost about $4.3 million, slightly more than the $4.2 million cost to design and construct the Northwood Parkway Bridge and Denmark roundabout in 2008. Both were paid for with primarily local city dollars, but about $1.6 million in funding from County and Federal agencies.