Congested intersections, hard-to-see turns and bike trails were just a few transportation issues community members identified for city, county and state officials at an open house last week.

Those issues will be analyzed and used in a Litchfield Area Transportation Planning Study, a collaborative effort by government agencies and the public to find solutions to transportation issues well into the future.

“Just based on what I heard, we will come up with a number of significant issues that will end up on a long-range plan,” said Scott McBride, senior transportation engineer at Short Elliot Hendrickson Inc., a consulting firm hired to facilitate the study.

The $125,000 study is a partnership between the city of Litchfield, Meeker County and Minnesota Department of Transportation to identify projects for a long-range transportation plan in and around Litchfield, MnDOT District 8 senior planner Jarrett Hubbard said.

“This is not just a state plan. This is a community plan, and these are all good issues,” he said.

Hubbard said while MnDOT is making no commitment to any of the projects, the department is interested in learning what traffic issues are most important to the people who live here. He said some concerns, such as the 5 to 10 minutes of heavy traffic on U.S. Highway 12 at the convergence of and St. Paul Street and Poly Dome Drive after a Bobcat shift change, were new to the department.

Three earlier sessions Oct. 18 with law enforcement, transit, the Litchfield Chamber of Commerce, Litchfield Public Schools and local government leaders filled half a dozen large poster boards with concerns. A steering committee has also identified four major citywide issues: access frequency, limited railroad crossings, requests for bike trails and a lack of supportive roadways to Highway 12.

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