Minnesota State Highway 62 (Hennepin–Dakota counties)

A typical traffic jam, before reconstruction, in the Crosstown Commons. The atypical part was that this picture was taken on a Saturday afternoon, not during a Monday thru Friday rush hour.

The Twin Cities' MN 62 had one of the most notorious junctions in the region where it interwove with I-35W. This mile-long stretch was known informally as the "Crosstown Commons". Plans to "unweave" and expand this section of roadway to improve traffic flow had come and gone for many years, frustrating the 200,000 drivers who used it daily. Construction of the current design was expected to begin in July 2006, but was delayed due to state budget deficits.

The project was adequately funded during Governor Tim Pawlenty's second term and bids were received in April 2007. The bid was won by the Ames, Lunda, and Schafer consortium for $288 million. Construction began in May 2007. The project included 25 new bridges, 63 lane-miles of highway, and expanded the total roadway width from 6 lanes to 12 lanes at Lyndale Avenue. The bridges were cast in Coates, Minnesota, and trucked in for on-site erection. The new design includes transit/HOV lanes and was completed in November 2010.[2] The new interchange features three through-lanes for I-35W (including one HOV lane) in each direction and two separate through-lanes for MN 62 in each direction, eliminating the need to weave across traffic. The 2007 cost of correcting the deficiencies in that short stretch of highway was estimated to be $285 million.[3]

In August 2018, the MN 62 designation was extended from its former eastern terminus at MN 55 near the Mendota Bridge to a new terminus at I-494 in the city of Inver Grove Heights. This new extension is cosigned as MN 55/MN 62 across the Mendota Bridge. Beyond the bridge, MN 62 replaces the former MN 110 in its entirety to I-494. This project has been designated "One route. One name" by MnDOT. The reason for the change was to assign a single highway number to this continuous route as opposed to the three different highway numbers (MN 62, MN 55, MN 110) that the route formerly had. MnDOT believes this will lessen the potential for motorist confusion. Now MN 62 in the Twin Cities area both originates and terminates at I-494, travelling across Hennepin and Dakota counties.