Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

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seanrichardryan
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby seanrichardryan » April 5th, 2019, 11:36 am

There is a plan for light rail queuing. Temporary fencing and transit police will be directing people to the platforms- you won't be able to just walk up normally or cross any street. Pedestrian access across University will be restricted/ directed from Pierce to Albert Street. Eastbound riders will access the site from Simpson, WB from Fry St (no access to platforms from Snelling) MT will add two additional empty trainsets to clear crowds after games. In addition, the outside lane in each direction of University Ave will be closed during games to reduce conflicts.
Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

BoredAgain
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby BoredAgain » April 5th, 2019, 11:54 am

There is a plan for light rail queuing. Temporary fencing and transit police will be directing people to the platforms- you won't be able to just walk up normally or cross any street. Pedestrian access across University will be restricted/ directed from Pierce to Albert Street. Eastbound riders will access the site from Simpson, WB from Fry St (no access to platforms from Snelling) MT will add two additional empty trainsets to clear crowds after games. In addition, the outside lane in each direction of University Ave will be closed during games to reduce conflicts.
This will help on day one.

Long term, I think they should put in a flyover bridge with platforms similar to the blue line lake street station. This would be majorly disruptive during construction, but remove a lot of transit/auto and pedestrian/auto conflicts. A pedestrian tunnel would solve some of these (and look better), but probably not be as good overall.

bubzki2
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby bubzki2 » April 5th, 2019, 12:29 pm

Grade separation at Snelling between train and cars can't come soon enough. I wonder what that would cost, either for underground or elevated station. We should slowly inch our LRT toward full grade separation.

Qhaberl
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Qhaberl » April 5th, 2019, 2:53 pm

I hear what people are saying about grade separator LRT. I am concerned about the amount of time and disruption it would cause during construction.

I could be wrong, but I feel like this type of construction project would disrupt transit on the green line for at least nine months. Would there be any way to construct a new platform/track without significantly interrupting service?

I am thinking something like building the elevated track and station, then creating the connection point at the very end of construction, maybe this could cause delays to only take about a month or so. Don’t really know anything about construction, just throwing out thoughts.


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trafficeng985
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby trafficeng985 » April 5th, 2019, 3:25 pm

People who are worried about parking here are missing where the true clusterf*** is going to be.

They're projecting 6,300 people arriving by Green Line. That's got to be comparable (or perhaps higher) than what Vikings and Twins games see, and they're serviced by both Blue and Green Lines, and have dedicated platforms with lots of queueing space. Not to hyperventilate too much, but this is going to be really bad.
Vikings games can be 7500-10000, generally queue for at least 1 hour after a game, if not longer.

Both of these platforms can fit about 2 train loads of people on them. Outside of that, people will be queued along a closed roadways: Simpson St on site for EB LRT and Spruce Tree/Fry for WB LRT. Spruce Tree will have officer controlled openings for vehicles in the ramp to get out down Roy St, otherwise completely closed roadway between Snelling and University. Ped crossings will be officer controlled, and only crossing one lane of EB traffic on University, which ranges from 150-250 vehicles during the various game times. Officer controlled crossing at Snelling through the new gate access to get to the WB platform. There is no need to cross all 3000 people who could use WB LRT at one time since the trains will still be running 10 min headways, save for the extra train. Theres a max of 600 people to fit on a train, so LRT loading will take time, similar to events at TCF, USBS, and Target Field. Events at those stadiums have similar LRT loads (5000 observed at Loons games last year), so the expectation that people will use the train and wait for the train is not far fetched. The traffic control is out here to make sure everyone is safe and we all know that Metro Transit wants their system to operate well to ensure people use it.

Anyone who willingly drives down and gets caught in congestion may learn a lesson game one. There is nothing anyone can do to prevent this from happening, outside of permit parking for a 1-1.5 mile radius, and that's simply not going to happen. I am hopeful that more off-site, but nearby parking locations (not off Snelling) are released soon or identified by private vendors game 1. Its going to be an evolving process. The first event at any stadium never works that great. Lessons are learned and travel patterns are defined. Changes are made to accommodate this.

My advice: come early, enjoy the festivities, stay after and revel with other supporters, and use transit, bike, or the park and ride to the fair.

seanrichardryan
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby seanrichardryan » April 5th, 2019, 8:18 pm

Q. What, what? A. In da butt.

minneboom
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby minneboom » April 6th, 2019, 10:17 am

They really need to make more safer bike routes to and around the stadium. 400 bike spots are great, but this is location is not nearly as accessible by bike as TCF bank stadium. Extending the Midtown Greenway or creating the Ayd Mill Greenway would be excellent.

Didier
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Didier » April 6th, 2019, 10:42 am

A second park and ride would probably be a good idea too. State Fair grounds make sense, but they’re not very convenient from a lot of places. TCF Bank Stadium would work well as a second location. I’ve also not yet heard of any private options.

mamundsen
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby mamundsen » April 6th, 2019, 9:54 pm

A second park and ride would probably be a good idea too. State Fair grounds make sense, but they’re not very convenient from a lot of places. TCF Bank Stadium would work well as a second location. I’ve also not yet heard of any private options.
Surly posted about being a pregame option. They had a package deal for railgating.

https://surlybrewing.com/mnufc/

Didier
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Didier » April 7th, 2019, 8:48 am

Thanks for that. So if I'm understanding, they have ~1,000 free parking spots, but if you pay $10 you get a reserved spot, plus a beer and a train ticket? I was hoping they might introduce something a little more creative to avoid sending a crush of people to the already busy LRT.

kdo5581
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby kdo5581 » April 8th, 2019, 12:32 pm

I have long thought that for events at Midway, they should construct another platform for the Westbound trains. There looks to be enough space between the existing crosswalk at Simpson St and the left turn lane for Snelling. (Edit: I'm looking at the platform lengths on google maps and you might need to reverse the direction of the pedestrian "jog" that currently exists at Simpson but I'm pretty sure there'd be room for this without completely sacrificing the pedestrian connection across University here)

That way, crowds would only need to cross one of the busy streets (University) instead of two (Snelling AND University). Plus if they are closing lanes to traffic, you would only be crossing one lane of active traffic on University rather than like 8 which is what the status quo would be. You could close the platform outside of event days, but have this option for when it gets crowded. The other advantage to something like this is you could have all the queuing on the south side of University (in what is now a parking lot, but according to the plan for the area will be another lawn-like space).

Downside is you'd need to staff the closed platform to the West of Snelling so non-event riders would know where to go, but at least it wouldn't involve shutting down the Green Line during construction.

minneboom
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby minneboom » April 8th, 2019, 7:47 pm

B Line meetings coming up soon. This would help with traffic, especially if it goes all the way to downtown Saint Paul.

https://www.metrotransit.org/b-line-meetings

Anondson
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Anondson » April 13th, 2019, 6:34 am

MinnPost on the preparation right before the first home game in the new stadium. Mention of a special surprise on the outside when they win.

https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2019/04 ... minnesota/

Didier
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Didier » April 13th, 2019, 10:51 pm

Bafflingly easy getting to and from today, if you were wondering.

mamundsen
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby mamundsen » April 13th, 2019, 10:53 pm

Bafflingly easy getting to and from today, if you were wondering.
Using what method? Pre-game tailgating? Stay at a bar after the game? Many additional factors would be nice to know.

Didier
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Didier » April 14th, 2019, 6:48 am

I drove. Needed to be somewhere right after the game so didn’t want to risk a long line at the light rail. Found parking no problem less than half a mile from the stadium.

John21
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby John21 » April 14th, 2019, 10:04 am

Anyone take the A line? By far the easiest way for me to get there but Snelling always seems to slow to a crawl when there’s something going on in that area.

NickP
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby NickP » April 14th, 2019, 10:32 am

I took the shuttles from the state fair grounds. To me, they took a really circuitous route between there and the stadium. On the way to the stadium, it involved taking the U of M transit way to Energy Park drive, then going to Snelling to cross the railroad tracks. After crossing we took Pierce Butler Road to Hamline Ave, and took Hamline Ave to the stadium. On the return we took I-94, to 280, to Energy Park drive, to the Transit way.
The stadium it self was beautiful! It felt very intimate.

Didier
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby Didier » April 14th, 2019, 11:22 am

Seems like generally things went very smoothly.

http://www.startribune.com/excited-socc ... 508547292/
While a few fans lamented the lack of parking, most said their gameday trek went off without a hitch. They rode buses and light rail, took shuttle buses from the State Fairground parking lots, walked and used Uber.

...

Metro Transit spokesman Howie Padilla said that after the game, both Green Line light-rail platforms were cleared of fans in about an hour. “For the most part, things went pretty well,” he said.
And this was posted about 90 minutes before kickoff:
Patrick Borzi
@BorzMN
Took light rail from Stadium Village to Allianz Field. Highly recommended if you’re not already on the grounds. Got a seat, easy ride, painless. When you arrive, helpful transit folks checking tickets and directing you as you exit. @MNUFC

minneboom
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Re: Allianz Field and Snelling-Midway Development

Postby minneboom » April 14th, 2019, 6:58 pm

I think they could run some additional 21 buses after the game. They were delayed and not coming very frequently. The first bus was too full to take additional riders, so we just went to get dinner to wait out the rush.


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