There’s a chance for the public to weigh in on a major road construction project in the North Metro.

Phase Three of work on Highway 10 in Anoka County is expected to begin later this year or in early 2024. Next week, project leaders will hold a meeting to discuss the final design plans.

Doug Lewis is the owner of King Kong Hobbies, a store just off of Highway 10 in Ramsey.

“We tend to be a destination more than a walk by, impulse by I guess,” Lewis said. “We do hear people say don’t bother going up that way because of the construction.”

Lewis says he is well aware of the construction that is about to occur outside of his business, and he’s hopeful his business isn’t impacted negatively.

“Mostly ease of access to the highway and visibility. We’ve invested in signage in our storefront, we hope to not lose that,” Lewis said.

Highway 10 has seen its share of problems in the past, and that’s why officials invested heavily in work to make improvements.

“Pedestrians were getting hit, bicyclists were getting hit, it was a danger zone,” said Matt Look, Anoka County Commissioner. “We knew that people were traveling through, it was our residents, constituents, it was outstate coming through. People were getting hit, getting killed and it was unacceptable.”

Look says this is an area that was seeing four to five times more crashes compared to a road with similar volume. So far they’ve started to remove stop lights, build bridges, and upgrade interchanges — all part of Phases One and Two of improvements to Highway 10.

“You can now get on in Northtown and you can drive without one single stop all the way into Elk River, the time savings alone is going to be substantial, the public safety aspect is absolutely enormous,” Look said.

There will be a meeting next week to discuss Phase Three designs and bring any questions to project leaders.

“If someone has come up with an idea, ‘Hey did you take this into consideration?’ — We want to hear that now,” Look said.

Lewis just hopes a smoother drive outside for potential customers won’t be a bad thing for business.

“It’s becoming a good place to drive past, so I’m hoping that it’s a good place to stop too,” he said.

The meeting is set for April 12 at Ramsey City Hall. For more information including the latest on the project, click here.