Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)

[mulad]

Yeah, the Montgomery Wards appears to have been a rail-served building, much like the Lake Street Sears (Midtown Exchange) was. It was surrounded on the east and west by relatively empty space occupied by a web of rails leading to various sorts of industrial or warehouse buildings, if I'm interpreting this 1940 image (Warning: BIG) correctly.

Not far to the west, there were a lot of rails for the TCRT Snelling Shops to store streetcars for various lines. So don't get any false illusions that they tore down utopia here.

Actually, I didn't know until just now that some of the Midway shopping area dates back to the 1960s: Here's another (BIG) shot from 1969 showing the area after I-94 went in.

I do vaguely remember seeing the Montgomery Wards as a kid, though I doubt I ever visited. My family would sometimes go along I-94 or University Avenue as we traveled up to Fargo. I remember seeing a news report when it was imploded.

I'm sure it would have been great if it had stuck around, but it likely would have been just as difficult to redevelop as the Midtown Exchange was.

[Tcmetro]

Here's a link to yesterday's CCLRT meeting presentation: http://www.metrocouncil.org/transportat ... 808PPT.pdf

Loads of pics in there, Siemens cars 201 and 202 to be shipped soon, with another 6 in production. Lots of construction pics too.

Went down University the other day, looks like roadway construction on the north side will be complete to Dale St. in a week or two, after sidewalks are poured. Roadwork is coming along much faster than last year it seems.

[spectre000]

If only work on Cedar St in downtown would speed up. Between 7th and 12th it's still a nightmare. They finally started some roadwork around the 10th St station so cars can now cross eastward. But 11th is now closed. 5th is closed. Progress on the Cedar St bridge is coming along. I really hope by November all of Cedar (road-wise) is finished. The gound has been dug up for so long in front of MPR and the next door churches I can't even remember a street there.

[moda253]

I used to live very near the MW building. It was a dump and falling apart in the end. Even while it was in use I don't believe much of the big tower portion of the building was safe.

[FISHMANPET]

Washington Ave bridge closes on the 20th for a week, apparently to lay rail. They're going to blitz it before school starts rather than doing it slowly over weekends during the school year

[UptownSport]

The ground has been dug up for so long in front of MPR ... I can't even remember a street there.

a little 'payback'?

[web]

I heard they are building special section thru there.......I think mpr got a morsel

[mattaudio]

A floating slab, right? And maybe they're doing some sort of special caisson up against the MPR and church foundations... It looked dug out very deep when I was there a week ago.

[NickP]

Yeah, they are putting in a floating slab. It is supposed to mitigate against noise caused by the trains correct?

[go4guy]

So, will it be in 5 or 10 years when they have to completely re-do the Washington Ave bridge and shut down the light rail for 2 years? I still cannot believe they didnt do this initially. That bridge is a pile. I remeber when the outside portion of the upper level was closed because they felt the support was not sufficient. Huge mistake there.

[mulad]

The Washington Avenue Bridge has been significantly strengthened. Each of the supporting piers has had two new columns added, going from 3 to 5. Atop the new columns, there are new bridge members. The bridge used to have 4 main members, now there are 8. These images show the south side partway through reconstruction (the north side was reconstructed later):


img_4476 by Mulad, on Flickr


img_4460 by Mulad, on Flickr

In this process, the bridge has also been made structurally redundant (no longer "fracture critical"). It should last a long time.

Of course, the enclosure on the pedestrian level is definitely in poor shape and needs to be repaired or replaced, but that doesn't have anything to do with the main structure/superstructure of the bridge.

[FISHMANPET]

I remeber when the outside portion of the upper level was closed because they felt the support was not sufficient. Huge mistake there.

They fixed it, not sure what the mistake is.

[612transplant]

^^^Thank God they're fixing the Wash Ave Bridge. We've known it was in trouble ever since MNDOT took inventory of bridges statewide-- before 35W collapsed, I believe? I'm surprised there wasn't more impetus to fix it after 35W collapsed, but I guess waiting for the LRT is a reasonable excuse....

[Minneapolisite]

It's from mid May, but I thought this thread could use more pictures, so here's University & Snelling:

I rode from Snelling one weekend down University all the way to Camdi for lunch: barely any cars to watch out for on some rather long stretches where University was reduced to one lane.

[FISHMANPET]

So crossing the Washington Ave bridge today I can see what they're putting in the rail lanes to get ready. It looks like the rails are going to be raised a foot or two off the deck of the bridge? Can't get a picture from the bus, but they've drilled small holes to put L bolts into, so there's about 6-8 inches or rebar parallel to the bridge deck, then they've got wire loops they're connecting those with, and then they've put these huge green "things" on top of those, not sure how else to describe it.

[LRV Op Dude]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1gkt6xWgIg[/youtube]

Video of the Green Line constrution between Snelling Ave Station and Union Station

[UptownSport]

I remeber when the outside portion of the upper level was closed because they felt the support was not sufficient. Huge mistake there.

They fixed it, not sure what the mistake is.

Right after they laid out all 35W bent beams below N side- Could say conspiracy.

I recall they used to drive an S-10 job truck on upper lever- It'd be about impossible for enough peds and bikes to outweigh that- Unless they were standing on eachother's shoulders

[mulad]

Thanks for the video, LRV Op Dude.

I walked along the line from Raymond & University to the UMN campus and noticed several things.

The median spaces between tracks and the roadway allocated to plants are starting to get filled in. Looks like there may be a mix of native flowers and grasses (but I'm not a botanist...).




No tracks in place at the Minneapolis-St. Paul border quite yet, but it looks like there's a U-shaped guideway in place. (I don't really understand why they do that in some places but not others, though I'm sure there are reasons.)

It looks like an additional building has been demolished along 29th Ave next to the Overflow Cafe. I thought they were just going to shave off a corner of it, but for now it just looks like a gravel parking lot. Rails are in place along 29th Ave, and curbs have been poured between the transitway and 4th Street.



The guideway area next to the bus transitway has been graded, but no rebar or concrete yet (except for foundations for catenary poles).



Rails and curbs are in place through at least most of the Washington/Huron/University intersection area, and rails are in the process of being embedded along Washington between Huron and Oak Street.





Some new sidewalks are going in, including a mid-block pedestrian crossing leading straight into the University Hotel Minneapolis (former Radisson Metrodome).



U-shaped guideway partly in place along Washington through the heart of campus




(Bigger images available in my "Transit Stuff" Picasa set)

I didn't notice any "green things" other than some tubes sticking out of the ground and rebar, though there were a bunch of rectangular black concrete boxes sitting around.

Boy, route #2 will look so unnatural next week with the Washington Avenue Bridge closed. Looks like they'll do a zig-zag into Dinkytown and back out to 10th Ave. Not that the 2's normal route looks natural at all

[FISHMANPET]

I didn't notice any "green things" other than some tubes sticking out of the ground and rebar, though there were a bunch of rectangular black concrete boxes sitting around.

Boy, route #2 will look so unnatural next week with the Washington Avenue Bridge closed. Looks like they'll do a zig-zag into Dinkytown and back out to 10th Ave. Not that the 2's normal route looks natural at all

The green things are only on the bridge, though they could be some kind of form that will be removed once the rails are in.

And at this point the majority of the 2 is Detour, I look forward to commuting next week.

[Didier]

Great pictures. I can also note that the actual road is pretty much done between Raymond and Snelling now.