As the Duluth Interchange Project progresses, there will be temporary inconveniences found throughout the the area. From road closures to slowed traffic and detours, they are inevitable when there is a project of this magnitude underway.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has stated the goal of this project is to "enhance safety by eliminating blind merges and left exits, replace aging infrastructure, and better accommodate freight movements through the interchanges next to the Clure Public Terminal."

Specifically, they will reconstruct the I-35/I-535/Hwy 53 interchange to improve safety by:

  • Providing a new conventional design
  • Relocating all exits and entrances to the right side of the roadway
  • Improving merging sight distance and eliminating merge conflicts
  • Eliminating weaving problems near the interchange
  • Providing lane continuity for through I-35 traffic
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On Monday, the Minnesota Department of Transportation Facebook page alerted residents near the work area that things will now be getting noisy due to demolition and construction that needs to be completed:

Residents and visitors in Lincoln Park (Duluth) can expect noise Monday-Friday during the work hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but some critical demolition may take place until 9 p.m., including Saturdays. TPI crews began Hwy 53 bridge demolition at Superior Street and will progress up the hill. Once bridge demolition is complete, construction noise will continue with driving piling for the new bridge.

The video below shows what the freeway will ultimately look like from a motorist’s view heading north on I-35 through the Twin Ports Interchange area, then heading to southbound I-35 from I-535, or the Blatnik Bridge, through the Twin Ports Interchange area.

I'm guessing that all Twin Ports area residents look forward to having this $435 million project completed and all the inconveniences will be worth it in the long run.

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To find out more about how has the price of gas changed throughout the years, Stacker ran the numbers on the cost of a gallon of gasoline for each of the last 84 years. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (released in April 2020), we analyzed the average price for a gallon of unleaded regular gasoline from 1976 to 2020 along with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for unleaded regular gasoline from 1937 to 1976, including the absolute and inflation-adjusted prices for each year.

Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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