SARTELL -- The morning and afternoon commutes will soon get a little easier for Sartell residents.

Crews are putting the finishing touches on installing a three-way traffic signal at the intersection of County Road 133 and County Road 78 near the Sartell bridge.

Stearns County Engineer Jodi Teich says heavy traffic has always been a problem in that area and with the new Kwik Trip being built a traffic light was a must.

"The traffic levels even without the Kwik Trip did meet the traffic requirement for a traffic signal, but we didn't have the budget. So Kwik Trip offered to pay for half of the project if we could move the project up in our road program."

Teich says they had to relocate some utilities to before they could get started on the project. She says once the lights are working, some adjustments may be needed to avoid a backlog at the bottom of the County Road 78.

"We have concerns of backing traffic up across the bridge as well as County 78 that connect with County Road 1 at the bottom of the ramp. It's something we are going to have to watch pretty closely and adjust the cycle length on the signal."

Teich says Benton County is also in discussion of putting a traffic signal on the other side of the bridge along Benton Drive.

If all goes well they hope to have the traffic signal operational by October 31st.

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