Snelling Ave

[pannierpacker]

There has been more work/planning surrounding Snelling Ave recently with 2 proposed roadway expansion projects and a bike study done by the city of St. Paul:

Snelling pavement rehab, turn lane expansion, and new sidewalk (2017, Falcon Heights and south Roseville):
MnDOT will be rehabbing pavement on Snelling ave south of Highway 36. In addition to this, they will be constructing additional left turn lanes for north/south traffic along Snelling to create a "double left" turn scenario at the intersections of County Rd B and Larpenteur. Lastly, that worn dirt path on the east side of Snelling by the State Fair is going to be finally be upgraded to concrete sidewalk.
There is only a little bit of information about this online at this point. Other than meeting minutes about council municipal consent, you can find an article here at least about the Falcon Heights discussion:
http://www.bulletin-news.com/articles/2 ... on-heights

Snelling 3rd lane going north (near future? Past Rosedale area):
Roseville applied for federal funding to add a 3rd lane going northbound on Snelling for a little over a mile stretch north of Rosedale. It sounds like the funding was approved and will cover 80% of the costs (Roseville to pay the additional 20%).
http://www.lillienews.com/articles/2017 ... -expansion

Snelling multi-modal study (date unknown,St. Paul only):
A few years ago MnDOT initiated a multi-modal study along the St. Paul portion of Snelling from about Selby-ish to the Fairgrounds (Como Ave). Some of these ideas already went into effect with the BRT setup in the past year (you may have noticed the sidewalk bumpouts in the Midway neighborhood just south of the fairgrounds). A lot of significant improvements/proposals were suggested (by MnDOT) regarding the bridges over the tracks, like dedicated bike lanes and/or wider sidewalks) but it doesn't sound like there has been budget money identified for this yet:
http://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/projec ... lingstudy/

Snelling BRT:
There is another entire thread about this discussion, so I don't need to comment on it here.

What I find interesting about this is that all of these projects impact a state highway, but 2 of them have been initiated by separate cities and only one proposal was initiated by the state DOT. Some of these projects play against each other as well. While St. Paul is pushing to make Snelling Ave a better bicycle/pedestrian corridor, Roseville is pushing to allow more automobile traffic to use the highway. Given that Snelling is pretty much the only state-owned north/south roadway that cuts through all of St. Paul and Roseville, I think that decisions are going to need to be made about it's purpose in the years to come. A comprehensive vision would make sense, but it seems like cities aren't talking and no one is stepping up to the table to put one together.

[sdho]

What I find interesting about this is that all of these projects impact a state highway, but 2 of them have been initiated by separate cities and only one proposal was initiated by the state DOT. Some of these projects play against each other as well. While St. Paul is pushing to make Snelling Ave a better bicycle/pedestrian corridor, Roseville is pushing to allow more automobile traffic to use the highway. Given that Snelling is pretty much the only state-owned north/south roadway that cuts through all of St. Paul and Roseville, I think that decisions are going to need to be made about it's purpose in the years to come. A comprehensive vision would make sense, but it seems like cities aren't talking and no one is stepping up to the table to put one together.

It's hard to reconcile the very different form of Snelling in Roseville versus its form in St. Paul and Falcon Heights. Everything about the road is more highway-like, like no private access, higher speed limit, wider ROW, more spaced-out intersections.

On the other hand, the section between Midway Pkwy and Taylor Avenue is extremely highway-like, yet St. Paul still at least went through the motions to try to figure out ways to make that more ped/bike-friendly.

It'd be great to see something radically different in Roseville like a multi-way boulevard. That's probably not realistic. But could they at least move toward something more like Cedar Ave in Apple Valley? That's no great street to be along, but I'd much rather walk or bike there than on Snelling.

[Anondson]

Snelling redesign from 4 to 2 lanes between Ford and Montreal.

https://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/proje ... index.html

Didn’t think I ever see this.

[HuskyGrad]

Snelling redesign from 4 to 2 lanes between Ford and Montreal.

https://www.dot.state.mn.us/metro/proje ... index.html

Didn’t think I ever see this.

Their map really makes this feel longer than the 2000' that it is. Do we know if that 10' trail is a long term plan for more of Snelling?

[John21]

It’s a start.