Street, Road and Highway Projects

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
mulad
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Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mulad » July 5th, 2012, 6:04 pm

Two years ago, the Star Tribune ran a Whistleblower column and video on 33rd Avenue Southeast, way on the eastern edge of Minneapolis between Hennepin Ave and Como Ave, is one of the last unpaved roads in the city. Because it's mostly composed of dirt that has been oiled down considerably over the years, it looks like asphalt -- but it's not. For the past week or so, I've noticed construction activity in the area as I've gone past on the #3 bus -- looks like the city is actually paving the road along with a connected segment of Talmage Avenue. Judging by the Strib article, the project must have been delayed by a year for some reason. Nonetheless, they're working on it now. Here's the project page:

http://www.minneapolismn.gov/cip/all/ci ... mage_index

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22nd St E (re)construction

Postby mulad » July 6th, 2012, 1:36 pm

Taking a random outing on the Hiawatha Line today, I noticed that the road reconstruction project at 22nd Street East is nearly done, with striping on the road surface. A brand new intersection with Cedar Avenue just south of Franklin. It also includes reconstructing a little bit of Minneapolis's Snelling Avenue.

redisciple had a blog post on the topic last August:

http://gettingaroundmpls.wordpress.com/ ... committee/

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Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mamundsen » March 27th, 2013, 1:07 pm

This should be what we are talking about.

http://www.bringmethenews.com/2013/03/2 ... on-season/

Here's the MN Dot page: http://www.dot.state.mn.us/construction/

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Re: Transit News and Happenings

Postby lordmoke » March 27th, 2013, 2:40 pm

Of note from the links above: the new downtown MPLS Northbound 35W ramp will be built this summer. Couldn't find where that topic was previously being discussed.

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Re: Transit News and Happenings

Postby twincitizen » March 27th, 2013, 2:52 pm

Are you talking about the NB 35W entrance from the 3rd/4th St trench, between the Dome and West Bank Station? I'm guessing we discussed that in the 35W thread or CCLRT, but that's a Hennepin County project rather than MNDOT, and has been pushed to 2014: http://www.hennepin.us/portal/site/Henn ... fe4689RCRD
Last edited by twincitizen on March 27th, 2013, 2:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Transit News and Happenings

Postby mattaudio » March 27th, 2013, 2:55 pm

The MnDOT press release shows this:
I-35W
Location: 3rd St to Johnson St in
Mpls
Description: Construct ramp at 4th
St S to NB I-35W, add auxiliary
lane, reconstruct exit ramps to
Stinson Blvd/New Brighton Blvd
and Johnson St NE (led by
Hennepin County)
Total Cost: $13.5 million
Date: April-Nov 2013
Impact: Lane closures and detours
Benefit: Improved traffic flow,
transit access to northbound I-35
Contact: Bobbie Dahlke

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby twincitizen » March 27th, 2013, 5:06 pm

The east-of-the-river portion of the work might get underway in 2013, but Hennepin County's website clearly states that the 4th St entrance ramp project won't begin until 2014.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby MNdible » March 27th, 2013, 8:47 pm

I'm not saying you're wrong, but MNdot's brand new press release pretty clearly says otherwise. Maybe you know something we don't, but this seems pretty clear cut to me that they're going to do this work in 2013.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby mulad » March 27th, 2013, 9:32 pm

I'll bet that 2014 is just a typo on the Hennepin County page.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby twincitizen » April 10th, 2013, 10:52 am

The Penn Avenue project is about to get underway in a week or so: http://www.minneapolismn.gov/cip/all/WCMS1P-083125

It looks great with all the bumpouts and whatnot, but way too many bus stops! The stops at 59th and 61st are ridiculous and unnecessary. The ones at 59th should be eliminated without question. There should be an explicit ban on having two stops on the same block face (far-side and then again near-side of the next intersection)

Apparently they are considering removal of the signals at 56th and 58th. Shouldn't that be set in stone before construction begins?

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby PhilmerPhil » April 10th, 2013, 11:06 am

Pretty upsetting that Minneapolis' first cycle track wasn't included here. It was proposed, but then opposed because a few people didn't want to park across the street from their homes. Penn Avenue was on the Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan and is a critical connection over 62 to Richfield.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » April 10th, 2013, 11:23 am

It looks promising that there are a few bumpouts on Penn, and a few blocks where on-street parking is condensed to one side. Why not more of this? And, with the expanded boulevards it seems like it would be great for a cycletrack in some spots and bike lanes in others. Seriously, no bike lanes at all on this route? Reading the neighborhood feedback from the public meetings is about as depressing as reading Pioneer Press comment threads.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » April 10th, 2013, 11:45 am

And 13' lanes when not next to a parking lane? Seems excessively wide. How about 12' or 11' + 6' parking lane rather than 13' or 11' + 8' parking.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby woofner » April 10th, 2013, 12:12 pm

Well they just have a cartoon up. The lanes will probably be reduced a foot or two for the gutter pan.

Yeah Penn is a real bummer. Too bad Mayor RT "Savior and Champion of Bicycling" Rybak didn't show up to advocate for decent cycling facilities in his own neighborhood. I believe there is money in the budget to make one of the nearby side streets even more safe for cycling, though, for what that's worth (nothing).

Edit: I forgot to complain about Public Works' refusal to add bump-outs at transit lanes, despite the fact that they are proven to increase safety and efficiency of transit. Remember that next time some politician brags about how great the buses are here (or next time you almost get hit by some douchebag in a rusty Duster making an illegal right turn around a bus at a stop).
"Who rescued whom!"

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby twincitizen » April 10th, 2013, 1:30 pm

Somehow I completely missed the lack of bike lanes...I retract my "looks great" statement.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby PhilmerPhil » April 10th, 2013, 3:14 pm

redisciple, I believe you are right about a side street being converted to a bike boulevard (Oliver Ave. specifically). Not sure if the funding was included as a part of this project though. It's another great example of treating biking as a novelty form of transportation. Oliver crosses neither 62 or the creek, forcing a detours and un-bike-friendly access to local businesses along Penn.

If anyone else is unhappy with this, it all boils down to political will. We need people in office that actually are "Saviors and Champions of Bicycling (and Urbanism)" to ensure important projects like this lean to a more urban friendly design, which is why it is so important to get your voice heard at the April 16 caucuses! See: viewtopic.php?f=23&t=1265

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby twincitizen » April 12th, 2013, 12:53 pm

I'm not saying you're wrong, but MNdot's brand new press release pretty clearly says otherwise. Maybe you know something we don't, but this seems pretty clear cut to me that they're going to do this work in 2013.
I'll bet that 2014 is just a typo on the Hennepin County page.
Not trying to one-up anyone but I was just dyin' to know, so I contacted Nick Peterson at Hennepin County and he said, "Great question.
That is no typo. The project should start next year."

Very strange.

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby MNdible » April 12th, 2013, 1:10 pm

Strange indeed. Thanks for following up!

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » April 18th, 2013, 11:24 am

$49 million in improvements to the Hwy 101 Minnesota River Crossing appear to be scheduled for 2015.
http://www.startribune.com/local/south/203244041.html
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projec ... index.html

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Re: Street, Road, and Highway Projects

Postby beykite » April 18th, 2013, 2:55 pm

What I don't understand is that the main reason for a lot of the work on the Bloomington Ferry Bridge is to handle the extra traffic from the 101 project over the next couple years. However, now they're saying 101 won't need to close during construction. Seems like a bit of a waste. I know the 169 bridge needed to be worked on anyways, but the reinforcing they're doing on the shoulders to carry extra traffic seems kind of pointless now. Would rather of seen the money go to expansion to 3 lanes all the way to/from 494. Or at least auxiliary lanes from Pioneer Trail to Anderson Lakes and Anderson Lakes to 494 East. Theres plenty of room and row doesn't seem to be a problem. Anyone know of any plans to expand 169?


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