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Taming Highway 1
by Bob Kelleher, Minnesota Public Radio
March 2, 2004

There are 64 curves in a 15-mile segment of Highway 1. With the curves, it's almost impossible to pass. And there's almost no place to pull over. (MPR Photo/Bob Kelleher)

One of the state's most scenic highways is ready for a facelift. Highway 1 snakes through the forest from Lake Superior to Ely. In a 15-mile stretch there are more than 60 curves. It's a pretty drive, much loved by wilderness visitors. But it's a headache for anyone who has to follow its twists as a course of daily life. Plans are coming together to rebuild the northern section of Highway One. But the plans won't please everybody.

Ely, Minn. — The upper section of Highway 1 hasn't changed much since completion in 1937. The curves are never-ending. The pine trees nearly slap the side of your car, and granite outcroppings threaten fenders from inches away. It's a thrill for summer tourists and a terror for the snowplow driver.

	Another curve ahead

Kimberly Sannes is designing a new Highway 1. She's a district engineer with the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Duluth. Sannes' e-mail inbox is flooded. A relatively small road project rarely stirs such passion.

"And it's probably over 300," Sannes says, counting a stack of printed messages. "They come in every day."

The highway's fans are almost religious. They write of the road's intimacy with nature -- a wilderness experience behind the wheel. Its curves force a slow pace.

"A lot of people also referred to the drive as their transition," Sannes says. "It's the transition from the fast pace of life, the multi-lane fast speed roadway, into the wilderness."

Ely wilderness outfitter Steve Piragis says leave it alone; leave one last stretch of road the way roads used to be.

	Steve Piragis

"It's 15 miles of pretty unique driving experience," says Piragis. "We have people who come up here from the Twin Cities with sports cars and motorcycles, and they come here all the way from Iowa, the Twin Cities, and North Dakota, just to drive that 15-mile or 20-mile section of road. And that would be lost."

Ron Brodigan takes Highway 1 from his log building school near Isabella to Ely. He says you can almost touch the woods.

"Right now you can reach out an touch some of the trees as you go by, and some of the rocks," Brodigan says.

Brodigan has helped many motorists who've literally touched the trees, the rocks, the deer, or the occasional moose.

"In the last 27 years that I've been around here, I've pulled quite a few people out of the ditch," Brodigan says. "And I've given quite a few people rides into the clinic or hospital."

It can be a dangerous stretch, but by the numbers, it's not much worse than most. In the last five years the highway has seen slightly higher than the average number of accidents, for the number of vehicles on the road. But the severity of those accidents has been slightly lower than normal.

"If you had to drive that, like the snowplow drivers, or school bus drivers, it's just a scare, the whole, whole length of that road," says Bob Hunger.

	Ron Brodigan

Hunger used to own a resort just off Highway 1. He says the road is dangerous, and it hurt his resort business.

"I saw way too many resort customers that we couldn't get to come back to our resort because they refused to drive that road again," Hunger says.

Plans aren't complete yet, but engineer Kimberly Sannes says the new highway will certainly be wider, with 12-foot driving lanes and six-foot shoulders. Now there's no shoulder at all.

"That's been expressed as a concern," Sannes says. "That there is no place to pull over, if you have a flat tire, or if you have some child in the back seat who's getting sick."

The bridges will be upgraded, and many curves will likely be loosened. But exceptions could be made, to preserve historic buildings, or particular trees or views. Sannes says the public is begging her to preserve as much wilderness quality as possible.

"They write, 'This is a treasure, One you change it, it will be changed forever. You'll lose it,'" Sannes says.

Environmental reviews are now underway on four different proposals for Highway 1. A final design should be ready by late spring. Construction bgins in another year, on a new bridge over the Stony River. The entire 15-mile segment will be rebuilt over seven years.

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