:: Unofficial Waconia Minnesota ::

Have you driven on Highway 284 between Waconia and Cologne lately?  That road is seriously messed up at the Waconia end.  It’s like a bad rollercoaster ride where you think you’re going to cause physical damage to your car, or your passengers, at any moment.

Some may say that it’s just the frost in the road and as soon as it thaws, it’ll all go back in place.  But I highly doubt that.  Some roads maybe, but not a road this bad.

And wasn’t it just re-paved last year?  Did something go wrong?

I now avoid the road at all costs.  I’m intrigued to go farther down the road and see if it evens out a bit, but when I bottom out at 30 mph, it’s just not cool.

If you’ve driven down highway 5, you can’t miss the construction of the new Walgreen store. It’s located on the corner of 284 and Hwy 5 and has been making quite a few advancements over the past few months.

The new Walgreens store won’t be open anytime soon, but at the rate they build business’ these days, a late spring or summer opening shouldn’t be that hard to meet.

A few weeks ago I traveled down county road 10 and it was pretty nice. All paved, but I still had to swerve around a few road closed signs, but you could make it. A few weeks later and all the road closed signs are gone and it’s once again open for business.

County road 10 now has wider shoulders, all new pavement and, close to Waconia, a whole new layout.

So if you’ve been missing county road 10 all summer, you get an early Christmas present as it is open for traffic!

The name brands are coming.

Kwik Trip is up and running and I’ve been there several times. Not only are the gas pumps fast, but the store has lots of goodies inside and the car wash even made a point to wash my rims.

Target should have a groundbreaking yet this fall. The 145,000 square foot store should open in October of 2008.

AmericInn is almost done too. It could be complete this October but not sure when the opening date may be.

And Walgreens may be coming to town. The city is going to review plans for a store at the intersection of 284 and 5. Personally I don’t think that’s a good location with the intersection being so busy, but something going to pop-up eventually.

Have you heard any news or rumors you’d like to share?

Highway 10 has been closed for some time now, however it’s still open to those that live out that way and emergency vehicles. So, I decided to go from Waconia to Chaska and see what was up.

The first part of the road wasn’t bad. Leaving Waconia on 10 isn’t to much trouble. A little off roading but more or less it’s a gravel road. Then it met up with a very nicely paved highway 10 that made me think we were close to the end of construction!

In the area just outside of town they’ve added a few more stop lights and lots and lots of roads. They are really planning for a huge area of expansion and you’ll be amazed once it’s all done.

Back on our journey, we went east on that nice new 10 and it turned back into a gravel road after about a mile or so. From there on out, it was questionable. Sometimes it wasn’t bad, other times there really wasn’t a road at all and you had to make your best guess on where to go. We did travel down one path that was a dead end. However, some quick reverse action and we were back on a path that went somewhere.

In the end, we did make it to Chaska, but it took a while and it isn’t for the faint of heart. My little Ford Focus made it, so I’m sure most vehicles would too. However, the road is VERY incomplete and probably changes daily as they continue to work on it. When it’s done, there will be a nice big road, but that’s a long ways off yet.

You know it’s spring when the orange comes out in full force. And this year, the construction starts off with county road 10 and includes most roads on the east side of town.

County road 10 will close April 23rd and be open again, hopefully, by mid-November. They are going to modify the road to meet up with the stoplights just to the east of where it comes out now. They will also add drainage, turn lanes and bigger shoulders which is good news for the bikers.

Unfortunately, county road 10 is the main road to take over to Chaska. With the road closed, the already busy Highway 5 is the only alternative.

To make it worse, Highway 5 will be getting medians, turn lanes and better striping this summer too. No closures, but you can expect delays.

What’s one more headache? Starting in July, highway 284 will be closed from 5 to 212. This project includes mill and overlay which I think means re-surfancing. Good news here is that’s only a month project. But other construction on 284 and Sparrow Road will cause even more problems as a roundabout is put in place. Talk about getting fancy. This roundabout could take three months though!

Those are the biggest headaches and if you drive east or south out of Waconia, you will surely see road construction, additional traffic and a sad change as the farmland continues to change into city.

More construction details can be seen at the official Waconia site.