TOWER — The intersection of Hwy. 169 and County Rd. 77 has long been a point of concern for drivers traveling through the area just southwest of Tower. Commonly referred to as the Y Store intersection because of the Bois Forte convenience store located at the site, the junction has again drawn attention following a series of recent injury crashes, including a fatality late last fall.
The recent incidents underscore what MnDOT engineers have known for years — the intersection carries multiple risk factors that make it especially vulnerable to severe crashes, even after earlier safety improvements.
The latest crashes have MnDOT officials considering additional options at the intersection, including the possible reconstruction of the site into a roundabout.
“We had a fatal crash and a serious injury crash in November,” said Jim Miles, district traffic engineer for MnDOT. “My records indicate we’ve had four crashes over the last five years, but two of them have been serious injury crashes, and one has been a fatal crash.”
According to Miles, the most serious crashes at the intersection share a common pattern.
“The majority of crashes that have happened at the intersection, and in fact, all of the fatal and serious injury crashes have been right-angle crashes,” he said. “They’ve been somebody making a decision that they wish they wouldn’t have and pulling out in front of somebody else, resulting in a T-bone type crash.”

History of concern
While the recent crashes have renewed urgency, Miles emphasized that the intersection has been on their radar for decades.
“We haven’t been sitting on our hands on this intersection,” he said. “It’s been troublesome for a long time.”
In the early 2000s, the intersection experienced a cluster of fatal crashes.
“We had three fatalities in three subsequent years,” Miles said.
In response, MnDOT implemented a series of safety improvements over more than a decade, employing multiple measures designed to reduce crash risk.
“We added lighting at the intersection,” Miles said. “In 2005, we changed the pavement markings and added dedicated left turns on 169. Somewhere along there in that time frame, we also added a flasher above the stop sign.
“In 2006, we made an offset right turn lane, so if you’re headed from Tower to make a right (onto County Rd. 77, also known as Angus Rd.), there’s a concrete island there,” Miles continued. “In 2014, we installed a rural intersection conflict warning system.”
Those efforts appeared to pay off, at least for a time.
“From 2005 until 2019, we didn’t have any fatals,” Miles said. “So, that’s 14 years with no fatals.”
However, Miles said the absence of fatalities did not mean the underlying risks had disappeared.
“There were crashes, but there weren’t any fatalities,” he said. “It looked like maybe what we had done had been effective, although all those risk factors were still there.”

Risk factors
Traffic engineers evaluate intersections using a set of recognized risk factors, and the Y Store intersection checks several boxes.
“It’s a high-speed intersection. It’s got a development on the corner, and the stop sign on 77 or Angus Road is more than five miles from another stop sign,” Miles said. He also noted that the intersection being on a curve and traffic volume increase the risk.
The proximity of two intersections on Hwy. 169 also contributes to the problem. Hwy. 1 intersects 169 just west of County Rd. 77, creating closely spaced decision points for drivers. An accident involving a school bus and a car happened at that intersection just three weeks ago.
“Having two closely spaced intersections is a risk factor,” Miles said.
Over the years, MnDOT has adjusted signage to help drivers distinguish between the two intersections, but Miles said that can only go so far.
“That doesn’t change the fact that they exist,” he said.
It’s the combination of risk factors that increases the likelihood that a driver will make a critical mistake.
“Each in and of itself is not particularly troublesome,” Miles said. “But when you start tacking on risk factors, people just sometimes don’t make the best choices.”

Looking for solutions
By the early 2020s, MnDOT recognized that additional incremental improvements weren’t enough to address the core safety problem. In 2022, the agency launched an Intersection Control Evaluation, known as an ICE study, to identify the most effective long-term solution.
“We didn’t have at that time any money for a construction project, and we still don’t have money for a project up there,” Alex Peritz, MnDOT project manager said. “But we ended up getting some money to do a study to help us try to figure out what it is we should be asking for when it comes down to money.”
The ICE process involved analyzing crash data, traffic volumes, and existing conditions to evaluate potential intersection designs.
“The study pointed in the direction of a roundabout as being the preferred solution,” Miles said.
From an engineering standpoint, Miles said roundabouts are particularly effective at addressing the kinds of crashes that have plagued the Y-Store intersection.
“They really solve a lot of the problems with a high speed, four-way intersection, because they take away those right-angle conflicts,” he said. “It changes them to an angled conflict, which tends to be much more of a property damage-type crash.”

Design challenges
While the ICE identified a roundabout as the preferred concept, MnDOT officials cautioned that the intersection’s layout makes design more complicated.
“It’s not as simple as just plopping a roundabout out there and that covers everything,” Peritz said.
Any design must account for the nearby Hwy. 1 intersection, access to the Y-Store, and traffic movements on County Rd. 77.
“There might be a roundabout shifted towards one intersection more than the other, and some other changes at the other intersection,” Peritz said. “We’re not quite sure what that would be. That’s what our next process will be.”
Funding hurdles
At present, no funding has been allocated for construction. MnDOT is pursuing multiple avenues, focusing primarily on safety-related grants.
“What we’re looking at right now, knowing that there’s a safety concern, is there any safety money that’s out there,” Peritz said. “There’s some federal safety buckets we can go after.”
Other federal programs are also under consideration.
A key part of the funding strategy is a three-way partnership involving MnDOT, St. Louis County, and the Bois Forte Band.
“We’re also working hand in hand with St. Louis County and Bois Forte to try to figure out if there’s other options there,” Peritz said.
County and tribal governments can often pursue funding mechanisms, such as dedicated funding through the Minnesota Legislature, that MnDOT cannot.
“There’s other levers that they can maybe pull and bring into play,” Peritz said. “That’s one of the benefits of having all three of us in this as a partnership.”
Even if funding were secured soon, construction would still be years away.
“Even if we got money tomorrow, don’t expect a project to happen this summer,” Peritz said.
He said the planning and design process alone typically takes several years.
“It takes about four to six years from conception to construction happening,” Peritz said.
For MnDOT officials, the goal is to move deliberately but decisively toward a solution that addresses the intersection’s long-standing safety issues.
“We know where it’s at safety wise, we know where it’s at risk wise,” Miles said. “We have installed a number of roundabouts over the last five or six years, but some of them are definitely easier than others.”
As the process moves forward, MnDOT plans to continue working with local and tribal partners, and to engage the public as designs are refined. For now, officials say the ICE study provides a clear roadmap for what comes next, even if the journey will take time.