MINNEAPOLIS — Between 50,000 to 60,000 cars travel the Hennepin-Lyndale corridor everyday.
It’s old and outdated and rarely isn’t a bottleneck. You’ve driven it. You know how bad it is. So does the city.
“It was built in the 1950s. It’s full of potholes, It’s in really rough shape. The curbs are bad, the sidewalks are bad, the lighting is getting old, so it needs to be replaced,” says Don Elwood, Director of Transportation Planning and Engineering for the city of Minneapolis.
Replacement is the plan, but that’s really about as far as the city has gotten. Tuesday was the first public input meeting at the Walker Art Center. City officials say they want to hear ideas about improvements from the people who use the area most.
That doesn’t mean there are not at least some preliminary concepts to work from.
MORE INFORMATION: Here is a link to the project.
Some of the ideas include narrowing or eliminating some of the lanes in the stretch that runs from Dunwoody to Franklin. There is also talk of new “Dynamic Signage” that would help drivers get through the area more efficiently.
“More time to figure out which lane they need to be in, plus they’ll be given conditions on maybe the congestion of the lanes so they can make decisions sooner and we think that’s going to channelize the traffic a little better,” says Elwood.
Beyond the cars, transit, bikes and pedestrians will also see some improvements. Those would include updated bus shelters and possibly a boulevard or trees and landscaping to separate pedestrians from the traffic lanes.
“I think it’s dangerous. You know you’ve got people coming from many different directions,” says Shelley Anderson.
Anderson parks her car at the Walker and then hoofs it to her apartment a few blocks away, but must cross the incredibly busy street to get there. The intersection is right out in front of Exit Realty. They love the location but it’s not always a plus.
“Clients coming and going are always complaining about it. We’ve witnessed several accidents right out here,” says Dave Doran with Exit Realty.
They represent exactly who the city of Minneapolis wants to hear from, the people who use the roadway the most, and who will ultimately end up footing the 10-million dollar bill.
“A little over $7 million is federal and the rest of that project funding comes from local, which would be the city of Minneapolis, which comes from state aid gas tax, the bonding authority that the city has, and some assessments,” says Elwood.
Minneapolis hopes to have the final design figured out by next winter. Construction would start in 2015 and wrap up in 2016. They say they’ll plan construction around major events in the area.
Newspaper Subscriptions
eEdition
RSS
Newsletters
