Speed limit dropping on I-94 stretch west of Minneapolis
Motorists navigating construction zones on Interstate 94 west of downtown Minneapolis will need to slow down as transportation officials reduce speed limits to 50 miles per hour.
The new speed limit takes effect Tuesday night for westbound traffic on I-94 between Highway 55 and Interstate 694. Eastbound traffic on the same stretch will have the new speed limit beginning Friday morning.
The safety of highway construction workers needs to be a priority, said Dave Aeikens with the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
"There's people working there that are really only protected in some places by barrels and cones, so that isn't a lot of protection," he said. "We need everyone to drive with care going through the work zones."
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Minnesota State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Nielson said the change also comes in part because motorists have been driving at normal freeway speed rather than the already reduced speed limit of 60 miles per hour.
"People need to be respectful of the speed limit. Fifty miles per hour will give people a little bit more time to react to things that might be in the roadway, like potholes or some other obstructions," she said.
Since the beginning of construction in March, there have been 275 reported crashes and 119 speeding citations in the area, public safety officials said.
"If you're entering an area that does have construction, allow for extra time," Nielson said. "[And] put your cell phones away. We don't want somebody to drift over a fog line or a skip stripe and clip a worker at freeway speed — that would be a deadly crash."