6th Avenue East – Projects
6th Ave East Resurfacing & Safety Improvement Project - 2nd St to Central Entrance
Project was completed in 2025
Project Details
- Project limits:
- 6th Ave East - 2nd Street to 9th Street
- Central Entrance - 9th Street to Mesaba Ave
- Pavement resurfacing from 2nd Street to Mesaba Ave/Rice Lake Rd.
- Lead water line replacement.
- Restriping – 3rd Street to 9th Street 4-lane to 3-lane reconfiguration.
- Addition of a raised center median island from 6th St to 9th St.
- Traffic Signal Improvements
Background Information
- 6th Avenue East carries approximately 12,000 vehicles per day between 4th Street and 9th Street, the area with the most focus on the 4-to-3 lane conversion.
- 4-to-3 lane conversion can be considered on roadways with traffic volumes:
- Federal Highway (FHWA) = up to 25,000 vehicles per day.
- Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) = up to 18,300 vehicles per day.
- General practice = up to 15,000 vehicles per day, does not need to be studied.
In 2008, the community organized and created a group called the Safe and Walkable Hillside Coalition and was supported by St. Louis County Public Health. The focus of the group was on improving the land use and transportation infrastructure in the Hillside Neighborhood within the City of Duluth. A Community Impact Assessment was completed reviewing Duluth's Comprehensive Plan and a schematic redesign of the 6th Avenue East corridor.
Following this work, the City of Duluth and the Duluth-Superior Metropolitan Interstate Council, known as the MIC undertook a traffic study based on the proposed Schematic Redesign of the 6th Avenue East corridor. This traffic was completed in 2014 and a traffic impact study on the surrounding street network was completed in 2016. The City hired a traffic engineering consultant to verify the conclusions of those reports and review the proposed designs prior to the reconfiguration in 2025.
View The will take you to the Duluth-Superior Metropolitan Interstate Council's webpage on the 6th Avenue East Traffic Impact Study completed in 2016.
https://dsmic.org/study/6th-avenue-east-traffic-impact-study-2016