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Re: Samatar Crossing

Posted: February 19th, 2016, 6:18 pm
by Silophant
10.5' or 11' lanes instead of 12' would both help calm traffic and give more space for the MUP.

Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 12:22 pm
by KML_1981
Now that the new 7th St. exit ramp from WB 94 is open for business, does anyone have any update on when the old 5th St. Ramp will connect to and allow access from the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood? Haven't been over there and have been curious. Thanks for any info!

Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 1:12 pm
by mattaudio
I haven't seen anything more specific than "2016."
http://www.minneapolismn.gov/cip/2016/WCMSP-173830

Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 1:13 pm
by RailBaronYarr
When the PAC reviewed the plans, they were targeting to begin work in July/August after the ramp opened. I haven't circled back yet to see if the schedule changed.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 2:17 pm
by KML_1981
Thanks! Didn't realize it had its own thread.

I did see the city's page with a vague start date of "2016." Just didn't know if anyone who frequents or lives over there has noticed any progress.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 2:40 pm
by MNdible
This article suggests that construction has been pushed back to next year.
Hay said construction for the crossing is expected to start sometime in 2017 instead of its originally planned 2016 start due to resistance from the community members.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 5:18 pm
by grant1simons2
Resistance from community members... What

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 15th, 2016, 9:14 pm
by intercomnut
Resistance from community members... What
They're worried about the increased car traffic it could bring.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 16th, 2016, 1:25 am
by PhilmerPhil
Wasn't it supposed to be ped/bike only in the first place? (With a skatepark that has now been forgotten.)

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 16th, 2016, 12:12 pm
by twincitizen
Idea: make it one-way northbound for cars. Then it can't "bring" traffic to Cedar-Riverside

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 16th, 2016, 4:14 pm
by RailBaronYarr
Wasn't it supposed to be ped/bike only in the first place? (With a skatepark that has now been forgotten.)
This was brought up at the PAC. Steve Hay said both the car-free nature and skate park area on the east side were both things the mayor had suggested and many people just kind of ran with it without any official confirmation of that plan by PW.

As to how much traffic it would generate to CR, I don't really know. 5th St on the downtown side isn't directly connected to the grid anymore, and once you're over to CR you've got to manage a bunch of turns and whatnot if you were trying to cut over to Cedar. I totally get the concern since the area at 6th/15th is a very heavy pedestrian area with a lot of kids using that park. On one hand, I get the benefits of reconnecting the grid for all users wherever possible (city policy) which spreads traffic around a bit. On the other, this seems like such a pointless connection for cars that it could probably be foregone. I think our suggestion (the PAC) was to approve it but only if significant traffic calming measures were explored for 6th/15th.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 26th, 2016, 9:43 pm
by twincitizen

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 3:38 am
by versitalex
The plan at http://www.minneapolismn.gov/www/groups ... 173843.pdf really makes me wonder why a "low use road" would ever need a northbound turn lane, let alone one that is hundreds of feet long.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 9:19 am
by seanrichardryan
The turn lane is existing. Seems the lanes could get narrower in the restricted ROW over the bridge. How old is it?

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 9:20 am
by MNdible
It completely makes sense to have part of this serve as a low volume automobile connection to help improve connectivity. In the absence of that, they should honestly just tear the bridge down and save on the capital and maintenance costs, because as a bike/ped facility it's duplicative of the Hiawatha Trail.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 9:28 am
by EOst
The Hiawatha trail doesn't connect to the stadium/5th St trail without this. So, not entirely duplicative.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 9:39 am
by twincitizen
Idea: make it one-way northbound for cars. Then it can't "bring" traffic to Cedar-Riverside
Does anyone have a reaction to this idea? Warsame is quoted in the Strib story as saying they would present both car-free and two-way traffic (PW plan) to the neighborhood. Why not a third option carrying car traffic in just one direction? I don't dispute the argument that some connection for local car traffic is useful. I don't know that it needs to be both ways though.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 9:53 am
by MNdible
If the issue were that the existing bridge deck were so constrained that there wasn't room to fit everything on there, then maybe that would make sense. But that's not the case, and I think for it to be a meaningful connection, it really needs to be two way.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 10:06 am
by mattaudio
What about making it two way, but 18 feet with no centerline.

Re: Samatar Crossing (former 5th Street exit / bridge over I-94)

Posted: July 27th, 2016, 12:55 pm
by amiller92
The Hiawatha trail doesn't connect to the stadium/5th St trail without this. So, not entirely duplicative.
It does via 11th Ave.

Honestly, I see merit in just about all positions on this one. I love ped/bike stuff, so that would kind of nice, but also seems like it would be expensive in the long run and maybe slight overkill/duplicative.

I guess I'd slightly favor connecting for cars, though. I don't really agree this the portrayal in the Stib article of the immediate area as already having a lot of cars. Washington, Cedar and Riverside have a lot of cars. But 4th and 6th Streets and 15th Ave do not. Allowing some flow through there might both enhance convenience and provide some relief for the more congested streets.

But then again, Currie Park is really heavily used and more cars would create some danger. So maybe just a super-calmed design?