Minnesota Department of Transportation

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Corridor Planning

Planning highway corridors for Minnesota's future

Corridor planning helps MnDOT and local partners understand transportation needs, identify opportunities for improvement, and prepare for the future. By looking at a corridor as a whole, agencies and communities can work together to understand transportation issues, explore potential solutions, and identify opportunities to advance Minnesota's transportation goals.

Corridor Planning Resources

MnDOT maintains three resources to support corridor planning across Minnesota:

Review a practical framework, data sources, and best practices for running a study.
Download the Corridor Planning Guidebook

The Corridor Planning Guidebook provides a consistent framework for developing corridor plans. It outlines a five-step process that helps planners and project teams understand corridor conditions, engage communities and partners, explore needs, and identify potential solutions.

The guidebook:

  • Aligns corridor planning with Minnesota's transportation goals
  • Promotes meaningful public and agency engagement
  • Provides recommended data sources, tools, and evaluation methods
  • Supports a consistent planning process while allowing flexibility for local context

While developed for Minnesota state highways, the guidebook can also serve as a best-practice resource for local agencies, regional organizations, consultants, and others involved in corridor planning.

See how MnDOT ranks different highway segments for corridor planning priority.
Open the Corridor Planning Scoring Tool

The Corridor Planning Scoring Tool helps MnDOT identify state highway corridors where planning may provide the greatest opportunity to advance Minnesota's transportation goals.

The tool uses statewide data related to:

  • Transportation safety
  • System stewardship
  • Climate action
  • Critical connections
  • Healthy and equitable communities

Scoring results identify corridors where planning may have the greatest opportunity to advance Minnesota's transportation goals. The results are considered alongside local knowledge, planned investments, and other factors when identifying future corridor planning studies.

Browse past and active corridor studies

The Corridor Plans Currently Underway page is under construction and will be available soon. Check back frequently!

MnDOT works with local agencies, regional partners, Tribal Nations, and communities across Minnesota to develop corridor plans.

Visit the Corridor Plans Currently Underway page to:

  • View active corridor planning studies
  • Learn about study schedules and engagement opportunities
  • Access project websites and study materials
  • Find contact information for ongoing efforts

What is Corridor Planning?

A corridor plan helps agencies and communities understand transportation needs, opportunities, and potential improvements along a transportation corridor.

A corridor can be a short stretch of roadway through a community or a longer route connecting multiple communities. It includes more than the highway itself and considers how people, places, and transportation systems interact along the route.

Corridor plans consider all users of the transportation system, including people driving, walking, rolling, biking, taking transit, and moving freight.

Corridor planning helps answer questions such as:

  • What transportation issues and opportunities exist today?
  • What challenges may emerge in the future?
  • What improvements should be considered?
  • What actions should be prioritized over time?

Corridor planning supports Minnesota's transportation goals and helps inform future projects and decisions.