A German engineer built the first cloverleafs in Minnesota
As Highway Engineer at the Minnesota Highway Department (now MnDOT), Carl F. Graeser included cloverleaf intersections in the design of Highway 100’s Lilac Way.
As was one of Minnesota’s largest WPA projects, it was built during the 1930s as the first segment of a planned ‘Belt Line’ which would encircle the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul, saving drivers’ time by allowing them to bypass city traffic.
As Minnesota’s first real “highway”, Highway 100’s Lilac Way included the first cloverleaf intersection in the state.
The objective of a cloverleaf is to allow two highways to cross without the need for any traffic to be stopped by traffic lights.
As the answer of modern engineering to the demand for fast, yet safe crossings, cloverleafs were built at three of Lilac Way’s busiest intersections at Highways 55, 12 and 7 on Highway 100.
As Minnesota’s first real “highway”, Highway 100’s Lilac Way included the first cloverleaf intersection in the state.
The objective of a cloverleaf is to allow two highways to cross without the need for any traffic to be stopped by traffic lights.
As the answer of modern engineering to the demand for fast, yet safe crossings, cloverleafs were built at three of Lilac Way’s busiest intersections at Highways 55, 12 and 7 on Highway 100.
The public thought those cloverleafs were a crazy idea.
The idea was so new, that Henry R. Grove, who grew up in the area during the 1930s, said,
“When our farmer relatives would come up to Minneapolis, we would take them down and show them this cloverleaf. Everybody would laugh and have a great time over it—because whoever designed something like that!?”
What were benefits of cloverleaf interchanges?
Improved traffic flow and reduced congestion.
Safely accommodated left-turning traffic at intersections
Modern engineering’s answer to demand for fast, safe crossings
Biking around the cloverleaf circles
The daughter of plumber Clifford J. Browne, President of the St. Louis Park Businessmen’s Association, remembers that her father cut the ribbon for the opening of the Highway 7 cloverleaf.
She also remembers riding her bike around the four circles of the cloverleaf that day.
The cloverleaf required 30 acres and cost $65,000, nearly $1,500,000 in today’s dollars. More info at the St. Louis Park Historical Society
Cliff Swenson, a worker on an original survey crew, said
“It’s like they talk about a computer broke down, and quick hurry out and hire a thousand clerks to replace that computer that’s down.
“Well that’s a joke, but the point is to hire 1,000 people instead of a bull dozer to come in and move about the same amount of dirt. But it kept people employed.”
Hennepin County Review | December 16, 1937 Read the full article
Splendid Highway Will be Opened Next Spring
Announcement that the Northwest’s first “cloverleaf“ highway grade separation, which carries Superior Boulevard over the new Belt Line highway just beyond the west city limits of Minneapolis, was opened to traffic November 26, has been followed with the news that the Belt Line road itself will be completed and opened to through traffic by early spring.
The huge intersection, one of the projects comprising the Belt Line highway, eventually will circle the Twin Cities and permit an unobstructed flow of traffic in the metropolitan area, and will enable traffic entering the area from any direction to find an open and safe radial route directly to any section of Minneapolis, St. Paul, or South St. Paul.
Photo gallery
Chief Engineer Carl Graeser designed the cloverleaf interchanges during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
