Open house for border project
By LAUREL BEAGER
LBeager@cherryroad.com
With only about 30 percent of the design process completed for the new International Falls border crossing, representatives of agencies and contractors met again with local officials to try to design out some of their concerns.
Plans for the about $300 million Falls land port of entry modernization project call for design to be completed next year, with the start of construction next fall. Completion is expected in early 2029.
Staff from the U.S. General Services Administration, which handles federal building and land acquisition, Snow Krelich Architects, and TenXTen landscape architects met with local people Tuesday in an open house setting to provide an update and discuss proposals for change in the original plans. A morning session of the open house was followed by another session later Tuesday.
The land port of entry is to be moved from its existing 1.6-acre site to a 20 acre site east of that along south shore of Rainy River and west of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility on Highway 11.
The whole project is aimed at addressing safety and security issues at the border and to create a safe environment for the officers that enforce the nation’s border laws, said Seth LaRocque, GSA construction project manager.
LaRocque said the designers will do the best they can to accommodate concerns about the plan raised by members of the local community.
Most visible of recent plan changes may be the idea of adding a roundabout on Highway 11 for vehicles to enter and exit from the border facility.
The roundabout is being considered to add safety to what will be a busy area of the highway and address concerns that the backup of traffic to Canada that occurs on some weekends might block the emergency entrance to a new hospital planned for construction east of the site.
Concerns about tourists bypassing the city’s business district on their way from Canada may also be addressed by a roundabout, because it would influence drivers to turn right – toward the city’s downtown area – on Highway 11 as they exit the site from Canada.
The open house had breakout sessions, with Tyson McElvain, of Snow Krelich Architects, providing views of the plans to a group. McElvain’s group included a representative of Rainy Lake Medical Center, Packaging Corporation of America, the International Falls City Council and the media.
McElvain said a group planned to walk the section of Highway 11 with staff from the Minnesota Department of Transportation to discuss the concerns and how they may further addressed.
Other issues yet to be decided include how trucks entering and exiting the paper mill’s scale shack, just opposite the facility site, will meld with traffic as they head east on Highway 11 to Highway 155.
