Waconia Chamber of Commerce 2015 Roadway Improvement

How we thrived…

MCCE Mini Institute June 2, 2016

So the funding finally came through for that long awaited project…

What will we do now? How will people get to my shop? This will be a disaster! Who designed this nightmare? Will anyone be able to get to our town? Where will the detour(s) be? How much focus should we place on this upcoming construction…….

What we were facing:

Meeting with the members: we included our city and MN DOT… could have also had the county, engineers, public works, cities nearby, etc

We discussed hopes and fears, strategies, messaging, signage, signage, signage…

Decided that less was best. Tell people how to get here, but don’t bombard them with road signs. Make sure that detours make sense. Drive the detours yourself… for time and distance and ease… be informed!

MnDOT Business Liaison

Metro Area

Diane Langenbach, P.E.

MnDOT Metro South Area Engineer

Diane.langenbach@state.mn.us

(651)234-7721

Business Impact Mitigation

What are business impacts? • Complete road closure with detours or lane closures

• Reduced access, parking and visibility

• Construction vibration, dust, etc.

When are they considered? • Impacts expected to last 30 days or longer

How are they mitigated? • Temporary construction signing, specific construction

schedule sensitive to type of business, special traffic

control like stop signs or traffic signal, etc.

Business Liaison

What is it?

• Designated single point of contact between MnDOT and businesses

Who is it?

• Usually the Project Manager or Public Affairs Coordinator

What do they do?

• Meet with businesses before and during construction

• Attend weekly construction meetings to understand work and impacts

• Communicate this information to the businesses, hear concerns

• Attend Chamber of Commerce/Business Association meetings

• Advocate for additional business signing, parking, accessibility, etc.

Business Toolbox:

2009 Laws of Minnesota pertaining to Business Liaison

MN Statute 160.165

MnDOT website for business impact mitigation

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/businessimpacts/

MnDOT Highway Project Development Process Subject Guidance

http://www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/hpdp/ select Business Impact Mitigation

Metro Contacts: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/contacts.html If you go to the bottom of the page you will see a list of construction public affairs coordinators and a map showing the areas that they cover. They would either be the Business Liaison for a project or know who is.

Local detour

State detour

Win

ery

Winery

Winery

Working with Local Businesses

Early involvement is important • 6 months to one year before construction

Not just local road authority • Chambers of commerce

• Business area groups

• Emergency services

• Schools

Different types of businesses will require different

accommodations

• Golf courses, wineries, daycares, retail, amusement

parks, garden centers, orchards, etc.

We needed to hire an expert messaging company.

OrangeBall Creative with Chamber staff -one of the first #WaconiaMinutes

Roadway “Improvements”

Whether you called it construction or referred to it as road

improvements, this work was going to take our customers some

extra time. Getting to and through Waconia would be a bit

slower, and as a community we needed to expect things to take

just a minute longer. Using that idea as a launchpad, the

“Waconia Minute” campaign was born. Rather than hide the fact

that things would be slower, we would embrace it and own it.

The question to our community was simple… What will you do

with your extra Waconia Minute?

Buttons!

This map was used in print and digitally

Calendar of social media postings

• Tuesdays Event coming up

• Thursdays Business Spotlight

• Saturdays Roadway Updates

Facebook and Twitter posts

Business FB spotlights ($25 each)

Examples of social media activity

When the signs are leaving!

Cutting a ribbon on HWY 5