At 109th Avenue and Tournament Players Parkway, where the road turns into Mankato Street on the other side, a two-way stop has handled the traffic heading toward TPC Twin Cities and the neighborhoods around it for years. This construction season, Anoka County crews are taking it out and putting in a traffic signal. At 109th and Radisson Road, the intersection is being widened for dual left-turn lanes in every direction, and a new signal system is going in there too.
Both intersections sit off Highway 65. The four Highway 65 interchanges everyone has been waiting for are a 2027 job. In 2026, a lot of the visible change in Blaine is happening on the parallel roads that will carry detoured traffic once the highway work gets serious. If your errands run along Radisson, 109th, or Davenport Street, your routine is changing before Highway 65's is.
The first season on Highway 65 was setup work
Officials broke ground on Wednesday, May 27, and crews mobilized on June 15. Utility relocation had already started in 2025. MnDOT's June release laid out a 2026 list made almost entirely of preparation:
- Relocating underground utilities
- Widening Highway 65 to make room for later construction staging
- Building crossovers that will shift traffic from one side of the highway to the other
- Starting frontage and backage roads
- Installing drainage pipes
- Closing some lanes and side streets, with detours
Anoka County's chief transportation officer told ABC Newspapers that interchange construction won't begin until 2027. The near-term highway work he described was utility relocation plus a new frontage and backage road on the west side of Highway 65, running north from 99th Avenue.
The disruption this fall has come in small, specific pieces. According to the MnDOT project page, 103rd Way at Blaine International Village was scheduled to be closed to and from southbound Highway 65 from September 22 through mid-October. The detour runs west on 104th Way, south on Buchanan Street, and back to 103rd Way. The 113th Avenue connection to and from southbound 65 has been closed since August 31 and is scheduled to stay closed through early November. Its detour runs west on 117th Avenue and south on Ulysses Street. Daytime lane closures in both directions between 93rd Avenue and 121st Avenue/Paul Parkway started July 28 and are expected to continue through late fall.
MnDOT says all of these dates are tentative and depend on weather. The project page also isn't updated overnight or on weekends, so 511mn.org is the place to check before you head out. MnDOT also says access to every business and residence will be kept open throughout construction.
Why the county is rebuilding Radisson Road and 109th now
These short closures are a preview. When interchange work starts at 99th, 105th, 109th, and 117th Avenue/Cloud Drive, a lot of local traffic will look for another way north and south. Anoka County is getting those other routes ready first. A $3.878 million contract, awarded June 9, pays for an intersection package that ABC Newspapers describes as meant to absorb traffic detoured from Highway 65 while the interchanges are built.
| Location | Before | What the county is building |
|---|---|---|
| 109th Ave & Tournament Players Pkwy/Mankato St | Two-way stop | New traffic signal, plus changes to the existing trail and upgraded pedestrian ramps |
| 109th Ave & Radisson Rd | Single left-turn lanes | Dual left-turn lanes in all directions, a new signal system, and a new trail |
| 105th Ave & Radisson Rd | Shorter northbound left-turn lane | Longer northbound left-turn lane and a revised signal |
| Davenport St at 103rd Ave and 107th Ave | Existing controls | Temporary traffic control systems |
The changes at 109th and Radisson are the biggest. Doubling the left-turn lanes in every direction gives that intersection much more room for turning traffic. The temporary controls on Davenport Street matter too. Davenport runs parallel to Highway 65 on the west side, and putting temporary controls at 103rd and 107th suggests the county expects more drivers to use it.
In late summer, the county said the overall package was on track to finish by the end of this construction season. An earlier update, for the week ending August 7, said crews at 109th and Radisson had finished removals, storm sewer, and grading, with concrete curb next. As the season winds down, expect some of these new signals to be running and some final pieces still underway.
The Radisson Road turn lanes that came a year early
One part of the Radisson work shows how the county is lining up projects so new pavement doesn't get torn up twice. The county had Radisson Road on its calendar for milling and resurfacing in September. Separately, the developer of the planned Scheels store needed right-turn lane extensions on the west side of Radisson between 105th and 106th avenues so delivery trucks could reach the back of the store. That work had been planned for 2027.
On August 25, the Anoka County Board approved a change to its joint powers agreement with Blaine that moved the turn lanes into this fall's project. The developer is paying the estimated $156,000 for design, construction, and inspection through the city. The number of access points on that stretch drops from three to two. According to the county engineer, building everything at once avoids cutting into freshly resurfaced Radisson pavement next year.
For people who drive Radisson between 105th and 106th, the result is one fewer driveway, longer turn lanes, and new pavement that shouldn't need to be torn up again during the Highway 65 years.
What the highway becomes once interchange work begins
The finished project changes how people get on and off Highway 65 between 97th Avenue and 121st Avenue/Paul Parkway. MnDOT is rebuilding the highway as a freeway with grade-separated interchanges at four cross streets:
- 99th Avenue
- 105th Avenue
- 109th Avenue
- 117th Avenue/Cloud Drive
Highway 65 will pass over these cross streets, with ramps down to each one. The Star Tribune reported that the bottom of each ramp will be controlled by either a roundabout or a traffic signal. Between 97th and 109th, local streets and driveways that now connect directly to the highway will be moved onto frontage and backage roads. In practice, many quick right turns off 65 into a parking lot or side street will become a trip to the nearest interchange and then along a frontage road.
There's a change for people on foot as well. Anoka County says the design includes a pedestrian bridge over Highway 65 between 113th and 114th avenues, and existing sidewalks along the corridor will be rebuilt to ADA standards.
MnDOT announced an apparent low bid of $168.2 million from C.S. McCrossan in April, the lowest of six bids. The Star Tribune put the total at about $170 million, with roughly $33 million, about 20%, coming from federal funds and the rest from state and local sources. MnDOT's bid release calls it a five-year project with completion in summer 2030. An earlier Anoka County announcement had said fall 2029, and MnDOT's newer schedule replaces it. That means Blaine has four more construction seasons ahead, and the heaviest highway work starts next spring.
Staying current through the winter
MnDOT hasn't announced which interchange will be built first or how the 2027 work will be staged. Until it does, these are the best ways to keep up:
- 511mn.org for live lane and ramp closures. MnDOT recommends it over its own project page for day-to-day conditions.
- The MnDOT Hwy 65 in Blaine project page, where you can sign up for email updates and watch the bird's-eye video of the finished corridor.
- Anoka County Construction Weekly for the Radisson, 109th, and Davenport work.
- City of Blaine Engineering for the city's construction bulletins, which cover side-street projects like the Meadowbrook area reconstruction north of 125th Avenue. Phase 2 of that project is set to start in spring 2027.
A Highway 65 trip will look different almost every season between now and 2030. If you're wondering how the new frontage roads, ramp closures, or Radisson Road changes affect a street you care about, whether you're staying put or thinking about a move, Paul Ekstrom and our team follow this corridor closely and are glad to talk it through with you. Contact Us any time.
