urbanMSP

MN 247: The 2014 Jurisdiction alignment study recommended CSAH 14 to the Elk Run interchange as a candidate for a "turn-up" due to spacing preferences. Missed this when Monte posted it 4 months ago, but the segment of CSAH 14 (which is 75th St NW...south of Elk Run) that was recommended i...

You asked Dan if he'd contacted Amtrak, when Dan was specifically talking at the time of trains between Northfield and Minneapolis. His comment about UP's Spine Line was an add-on, but the main point of the discussion was the Dan Patch line.

Amtrak wouldn't have anything to do with regional rail (i.e. the Dan Patch corridor), so contact them would be useless. MnDOT may not have much, if anything, because 2002 legislation specifically prohibited future planning along the Dan Patch corridor. That legislation prohibits MnDOT, the Metropoli...

If St. Paul was in the same county as Minneapolis, the green line would have probably gone first, but we'll never know. Actually, we can chalk the Green Line not being first up to a 1992 pocket veto from then-Governor Arne Carlson which would have authorized design, construction, and funding for wh...

I'm not sure the concepts in Alon Levy's post are fully applicable here. In particular, the way he's writing makes it sound like he's referring in particular to transit lines that have the airport as a termini. Sure, Riverview would serve the airport, but its terminus would be MOA. Relating this to ...

Small world....I'd come up with a proposal similar to Mulad's seven years ago...

Matt has often brought up his ideal situation. To which I have to respond that doing so would require either eliminating 31st under 35W or eliminating the adjacent sections of 2nd and Stevens between Lake and 31st. Topography and ramp grades make it impossible to add direct ramps to Lake while leavi...

The 169 construction mentioned is to bring it out of the 100-year floodplain.

Not just Granary Rd, but the SEMI area in general.

I'm presuming this is why the redirect from urbanmsp.com no longer works...

Higher frequency (every 30 minutes) as far west as Mound This would require at least some double-tracking. Given that the former railroad was all single-track, you would incur some significant grading costs and, depending on where that double-tracking would have to go, might squeeze out the bike/pe...

I'm not convinced anymore that extending SWLRT to Chaska is the right idea. From a population and job density perspective, it would be more functional to extend it west to old Chanhassan. Connecting Shakopee and Chaska to the rest of the Metro could be done via another means: commuter rail. If oppos...

MobJob: these are probably what you're looking for.

Not anymore. Notice the URL change?

That being said, I agree that the Gold Line, and any rapid-transit line extending past the 494/694 loop (MOA portion of the Blue Line excepted) is a waste of money.

What about the I-35W corridor? That's a heavily used transit corridor into Burnsville.

I took a look at Matt's proposals. Here's a rundown of the problems with all three: A) On the northbound side, the geometry for the northbound flyover is all wrong. It would require a lot more distance to bring one ramp to a grade to bridge over the other. If the intent is to do something similar to...

Brooklyn Center goes up to 73rd, so anything at 70th (like the proposed access closure) could be done without requiring Brooklyn Park buy-in. @jw138: the study may have focused on 66th, but it did look at the Brooklyn Park side, as has at least one MnDOT/Met Council study in the past. The likely sce...

Green Line has enough potential frequency that it could easily interline either with this or with Gateway. But, as mentioned, an issue would be the length of the line and break times for the train operators. A modification of Option #7 is what I've proposed in the past. This, IMO, is the best way to...

It is not a bad idea to think bigger about this intersection, ...nor is it a bad idea to think REALISTICALLY about this intersection. A tunnel is not realistic. There's a separate project coming in a year or two to connect the Hiawatha trail between 32nd and 28th, but the implications of that weren...

10 minutes isn't bad. I've seen reports from other airports of delays pushing an hour.