Re: Bottineau LRT (Blue Line Extension)
Posted: February 20th, 2020, 10:34 am
If a new route that includes a (or two) west end station were to be considered I would say that’s a great victory for the delay.
Architecture, Development, and Infrastructure of the Twin Cities
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This is honestly for the best! Let’s choose a route that will actually serve transit dependent people!Breaking News: BNSF right-of-way is officially dead for Bottineau.
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We are optimistic that moving this project in a new direction presents an exciting opportunity to revisit and improve the METRO Blue Line Extension project to serve even more people and destinations, while maintaining as much of the existing alignment as possible.
Let's stop trying to take the easy way, that is how we end up with bad routes. Lets me loud and political for a good routing!I think Lyndale to Lowry is best. W. Broadway is too challenging technically and politically. Here's a new idea...Lyndale to the Canadian Pacific Right away near Camden? Maybe there is room on the Southern end of the yard to sneak LRT through?
The alternate of Penn to W. Broadway is feasible. Lyndale to Lowry is probably the best and 45th would also work well. Going through the heart of W. Broadway however I suspect is politically infeasible.Let's stop trying to take the easy way, that is how we end up with bad routes. Lets me loud and political for a good routing!I think Lyndale to Lowry is best. W. Broadway is too challenging technically and politically. Here's a new idea...Lyndale to the Canadian Pacific Right away near Camden? Maybe there is room on the Southern end of the yard to sneak LRT through?
I'd been largely dismissive of early discussions about a full subway through North Minneapolis, but I could envision a routing that would follow N 7th St at grade across I-94, and then enter a tunnel near Plymouth and re-emerge at the Broadway crescent, where the Broadway ROW relaxes. This would be a relatively short tunnel, and it could be done without requiring a subgrade station, which would escalate the costs.The alternative to Broadway and Lyndale N, or at least part of it, would be to dig a short subway from Target Field perhaps to the end of the Broadway crescent when the street straightens out and heads almost due NW. You'd need a TBM to do this, and would have to excavate at least one station at Emerson and Fremont, and so I think it's difficult to justify.
This was the route I had in mind!I'd been largely dismissive of early discussions about a full subway through North Minneapolis, but I could envision a routing that would follow N 7th St at grade across I-94, and then enter a tunnel near Plymouth and re-emerge at the Broadway crescent, where the Broadway ROW relaxes. This would be a relatively short tunnel, and it could be done without requiring a subgrade station, which would escalate the costs.The alternative to Broadway and Lyndale N, or at least part of it, would be to dig a short subway from Target Field perhaps to the end of the Broadway crescent when the street straightens out and heads almost due NW. You'd need a TBM to do this, and would have to excavate at least one station at Emerson and Fremont, and so I think it's difficult to justify.
City of Brooklyn Park would never let that happen in my opinion, they were promised LRT they are still going to want it.Since it's pretty much back to the drawing board, how about rerouting it to Maple Grove instead of a corporate campus in the middle of farm fields?
That's a better idea. I only see one obvious full take: the MPS building, which would likely be where you'd put the Plymouth Avenue (and Emerson/Fremont D Line connection) Station. Your partial takes would even be helpfully limited if you put can put a big ventilation and emergency access shaft in the parking lot of North Commons Park.I'd been largely dismissive of early discussions about a full subway through North Minneapolis, but I could envision a routing that would follow N 7th St at grade across I-94, and then enter a tunnel near Plymouth and re-emerge at the Broadway crescent, where the Broadway ROW relaxes. This would be a relatively short tunnel, and it could be done without requiring a subgrade station, which would escalate the costs.The alternative to Broadway and Lyndale N, or at least part of it, would be to dig a short subway from Target Field perhaps to the end of the Broadway crescent when the street straightens out and heads almost due NW. You'd need a TBM to do this, and would have to excavate at least one station at Emerson and Fremont, and so I think it's difficult to justify.
The alignment will have to change, but I'm virtually certain that the corridor will not.Since it's pretty much back to the drawing board, how about rerouting it to Maple Grove instead of a corporate campus in the middle of farm fields?
I don't think it will push it out that far.Now that this is presumably at the back of the line and 10+ years out again, what if we spent some of the money on track rights and upgrades and extended the (already BNSF-operated) Northstar out along this line to Osseo or so, with a couple midday runs instead of exclusively rush-hour? Or would the various powers that be insist that if the SW suburbs get a high-frequency train, the NW suburbs deserve no less?