Interstate 35E (Minnesota) - History

History

Early plans for the Interstate Highway System include a route along roughly the same alignment as the present I-35 through the Twin Cities area, but are not detailed enough to show exactly how the cities would be served. When preliminary urban routes were laid out in 1955, a split alignment was chosen to serve both cities equally. South of the Twin Cities, I-35 followed the corridor of old US 65, which had followed Lyndale Avenue between Burnsville and downtown Minneapolis. I-35E was located parallel to MN 13, which cut northeast to Saint Paul from old US 65 south of the Minnesota River. North of the metropolitan area, I-35 closely paralleled US 61, which passed through Saint Paul; I-35W paralleled old US 8 from Minneapolis northeast through New Brighton and then to the present day I-35E – I-35W split at Columbus near Forest Lake, near where old US 8 had joined US 61. The Minnesota Legislature defined I-35E as part of unmarked Legislative Route 390, which stretched south to the Iowa state line and north to the city of Duluth along I-35.

I-35E was completed north of downtown Saint Paul in 1970. The first section to open ran north from Maryland Avenue in Saint Paul to I-694 in Little Canada; this was completed in the early 1960s, concurrently with I-694 west to old MN 49 (Rice Street). Later that decade, I-35E was extended south to downtown Saint Paul, opening first to Pennsylvania Avenue and then to I-94, including the I-35E / I-94 concurrency (and I-94 in both directions). In 1970, I-35E was extended north along the I-35E / I-694 concurrency in Little Canada – Vadnais Heights and also extended northbound to its northern terminus at Columbus near Forest Lake; the adjacent sections of I-35, I-35W, and I-694 opened at about the same time.

The southern half of I-35E in the metro area took a lot longer to build. Its first section—a short stretch from MN 110 north to State Highway 5, including the Lexington Bridge over the Mississippi River—opened in the mid-1960s. Even though the connecting piece of I-35W and I-35 at the southern terminus of I-35E in Burnsville opened in the mid-1960s, it was not until the mid 1980s that I-35E was completed south of MN 110 at Mendota Heights and southbound through Eagan and Apple Valley, where there had been a missing link of I-35E for 20 years. Construction was delayed by opposition from nearby residents in Burnsville and from environmentalists over the proposed alignment across Blackhawk Lake. The final plan involved a new alignment avoiding the lake, as well as a less complicated interchange at I-494 in Mendota Heights, eliminating access to MN 55 that was part of the earlier plans.