urbanMSP

Love that guy's yard sign: "Don't Take Away Our Stop Signs".

An update on the MnPass III study:
https://metrocouncil.org/Council-Meetin ... -List.aspx

Mid-City Industrial is getting some streets reconstructed. On the TPW agenda for design approval

https://lims.minneapolismn.gov/File/2017-01311

Sorry not sorry if this isn't the best place to post this, but I read an interesting article about Winnipeg discovering an unexpected (but predictable) downside of LED traffic lights - they have to be cleared of snow.
http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/mani ... -1.4377116

Design for the TH 36 and Hadley grade separation plus Gateway Trail grade separation project.

https://www.co.washington.mn.us/2504/HadleyInterchange/

So much space for smooth flowing driving... I’m not saying 36/Hadley didn’t deserve grade separation, but all the space for high speed roundabouts has me fantasizing about filling in the empty space with taxpaying uses.

Separating the Gateway Trail is a wonderful thing.

At those distances, I assume there will be no pedestrians walking to Mills Fleet Farm or the theater. So the paths & crosswalks are mostly for cyclists? Well, currently, a cyclist would have the right of way biking south to north to get to those businesses, with just unsignaled T-intersections and the one signaled intersection. After the change, a cyclist would have to cross at least 4 crosswalks with no traffic lights and cars looking left instead of right at the roundabouts. If this were a denser area, I think there’d be a good argument for bike tunnels.

As I look at the proposed change, I think those crossings will be mostly used by aggressive recreational cyclists from the trail (nothing wrong with that), and not really by neighborhood residents wanting to pick up something at the store or see a movie.

As for cars, this would presumably be safer in that there’d be no head-on or T-bone crashes, like any roundabout addition.

I thought there was a plan (and FF agreed to it) to remove or relocate the gas station to allow for a straighter Hadley. This jut looks like a HUGE waste of space. Are there other commercial sites available in this layout? Maybe just north of the gas station between the road and pond?

Yay for grade separating this intersection, nay for the roundabouts taking up all that space and ruining the area for pedestrians for the next couple generations.

It's a lot of crossings, but at least they all have refuge islands. I don't think this area would be all that bad to cycle through, though maybe worse to walk.

Don't they do a Cost-Benefit Analysis? This takes up a lot of space and seems really expensive in order to eliminate one stoplight intersection. I'll like to see less space dedicated to highways not more.

People keep talking about space being consumed here... Are people upset about the roundabouts? Or about the loops for the folded diamond interchange? I think the folded diamond is required to maintain ramp spacing between this interchange and the 694 interchange very close to the east.

Also if you review the signalized alternative, to me it was far more hostile to peds/bike as it flared to 4+ lanes in some areas. I think this is a very thoughtful design, and major interchanges are hard to squeeze into an area any smaller than this. Expected ADT is 40k in 2040 per the TH 36 study done recently. Another factor is Century, which has also been drawn up but not yet finalized/funded. That stoplight is timed in coordination with Hadley at present, and this improvement should allow Century in the near term to become far more efficiently timed as well.

Although it might make things more efficient. I just don't think it's worth $13 million. Is the economic benefit worth $13? What if Mills or the theater do out of business in 5 years? There should be sensitivity analysis for things like that.

In principle, I understand the concerns about taking up a lot of space, being pedestrian-hostile, etc. In practice, this area is not going to have enough pedestrians to justify making them a major factor, at least not anytime soon.

Take a look on Google Maps and you'll see a whole lot of nothing. This interchange serves a gas station, a movie theater, a Fleet Farm, two industrial sites, and a trailer park. A bit further out there's a sprawling single-family home development that's clearly not oriented around walking anyway, and a more reasonable grid neighborhood where anyone walking is heading in the opposite direction towards 7th Street.

The point here seems to be making it so people travelling to/from Stillwater don't have to stop at a light to wait for traffic from the Fleet Farm. That seems like a reasonable priority. Maybe not $13M reasonable, but most of this state clearly values road projects more highly than I do.

With the Hwy 120 interchange being less than a mile away, and Hadley being accessible from 120, is it worth asking if a $13 million crossing is even needed at Hadley & 36?

It might be cheaper to run a service road/improve side streets from 121 to the current service road and eliminate the Hadley crossing if you want to make it an Expressway. Especially if they plan on redoing that intersection. I looked it up on Google Pedometer and the two are .75 miles apart.

Here's the study, if you're really interested: https://www.co.washington.mn.us/Documen ... View/11984
Cost estimates are on pp.131-132.

This is near my work, and while there is a whole lot of nothing along the street front, it seems the massive space used for this could have been built up over time with more traditional streets. Now all this land will be taxpayer sinkhole when there could have been development and productivity.

It seems like most MNDOT work is about moving cars as fast as possible and now, more about safety, which is good, but little thought is given to how it effects built environment that can develop around it.

http://www.sehinc.com/online/rice694

Rice St and 694 interchange design
This might have been out for a while but it was just brought to my attention. They plan to construct Rice and 694 similar to Rice and 36, but with roundabouts instead of signals.

My thoughts:
- the current status with multiple lights on both ends is terrible.
- I don't like the flyover exit/entrance setup. Seems excessive to construct 3 bridges instead of 1.
- The shifted roadway on the south side (N Owasso) will reduce visibility and take out the Vadnais Inn (bar). I wonder how much that business is being compensated?
- will the large open space to the south of 694 and west of Rice be sold to a developer?
- did they leave space between 694 and the soundwall for that little jog in the exit ramp? "D'Oh!"
- how will semi traffic move through this area? The roundabouts seem too close for a semi to weave through the area.
- it REALLY is too bad this wasn't worked on as part of the just competed 694 project.

Other thoughts?

Those free-rights on the roundabouts seem to be bringing along the worst of conventional layout to roundabouts which I thought were about slowing traffic down. Will those crosswalks be terrifying?