Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)
Posted: December 13th, 2016, 4:22 pm
100% true
Architecture, Development, and Infrastructure of the Twin Cities
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By the way this is wrong, cut and cover doesn't leave the cuts open, it by definition covers them. I don't believe there was every a plan to leave an open rail trench down Nicollet. Unless by permanent you're referring to the number of years that Nicollet would be torn up during construction.It's funny how people didn't want blocks long open rail cuts as permanent defining neighborhood features.
The goofy half baked Nicollet alignment will live forever in the hearts of people who wouldn't have had to fund, build or operate it.
I've jumped into this 3C argument against my better judgement but at least I'm not banging the same drum day after day.Wow, that's a lot of grade separation west of Shady Oak/OMF for not a lot of stations and transit-compatible land uses. If only we spent that much money doing grade separated transit where there are actual transit riders.
So that's the second station-area fail in Hopkins in the name of parking, right? Didn't we lose out on TOD at Blake Road due to their desire to buy fake ridership with "free" parking?Met Council negotiating to buy ramp across from future SWLRT station under Doran's apartments in Hopkins.
I still do not understand deferring the Eden Prairie Town Center station - near where people live and work - but keeping the Golden Triangle and City West stations that aren't remotely walkable.Uploaded METRO Green Line Extension (Southwest LRT)
My cynical answer is that there is a reason to still do the Town Center station in the future even if it doesn't happen now. If they skip the golden triangle and City West stations, there are no constituents (aside from "completists") who would see a reason to spend money and build it later.
I still do not understand deferring the Eden Prairie Town Center station - near where people live and work - but keeping the Golden Triangle and City West stations that aren't remotely walkable.
The portals were pretty big.By the way this is wrong, cut and cover doesn't leave the cuts open, it by definition covers them. I don't believe there was every a plan to leave an open rail trench down Nicollet. Unless by permanent you're referring to the number of years that Nicollet would be torn up during construction.
We have exactly that in the Greenway. If rail in the Greenway will be okay, I don't know why a few open roofs in the center of the street If my memory serves correct) would be so awful to tolerate. In fact, it'd likely be have been far less of a gap than the Greenway.It's funny how people didn't want blocks long open rail cuts as permanent defining neighborhood features.
I am sure there are ways this could have been avoided. I'm not saying Eat Street/Whittier/Midtown Greenway Coalition have the clout of wealthy Kenilworth landowners... But if they could swing a several-hundred million dollar tunnel under a trail, I'm sure we could have dropped the rails down another 15' before turning north under what would have been a straight shot bike/ped path. If 3C had been chosen, I also bet we could have coordinated the K-Mart redevelopment to allow a bit more breathing room to the south to bend SWLRT tracks out first while keeping ROW for future Greenway transit to continue heading east. And, worst case, another option would have been to keep the 29th-Lake block of Nicollet car-free and yeah the bikers have to go back up to street level and drop back down. We built an expensive bridge over Hiawatha (and, I should add, a train) with a much larger/longer climb that adds an extra 1,000 feet of biking distance and people seem to enjoy it and everything.3C would also have blocked the Greenway at Nicollet; cyclists would have been forced to take ramps over the tunnel entrance and then cross Nicollet at grade. That alone should have been enough to doom it.
We have exactly that in the Greenway. If rail in the Greenway will be okay, I don't know why a few open roofs in the center of the street If my memory serves correct) would be so awful to tolerate. In fact, it'd likely be have been far less of a gap than the Greenway.
Little more than an open roof in the center of the street.The open-air, below-grade station platforms in Segment A would consume the full width of each street right-of-way between 29th Street and 28th Street and between 22nd Street and Franklin Avenue. This configuration would require the closure of the street to vehicle traffic within that block.
So I'm not sure where that other description comes from. I'm not saying it's wrong, just that multiple other documents show the opposite. In any case, I always thought it was weird that we'd build a cut-cover tunnel but then leave the station open air rather than just closing it off. I'd imagine folks would have pushed to just close it to have a wider sidewalk and/or keep the center turn lanes or whatever.In Segment C-1, the alignment travels under Nicollet Avenue in a tunnel and features two open-air stations. At station locations along Nicollet Avenue, one travel lane in each direction will be cantilevered over the open-air stations below. This will call for the removal of the center-turn lanes along Nicollet Avenue, as well as modifying the appearance of the roadway. The cantilevered roadway sections and open air tunnels extend from 250 feet south of 27th Street to 29th Street as well as from 200 feet north of 22nd Street to 200 feet north of Franklin Avenue.