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Downtown Riverfront - Mill Ruins Park - Waterworks

Posted: September 20th, 2013, 2:17 pm
by MNdible
Sounds like the removal of the locks of the Upper Mississippi may be proceeding.

It will be a bummer to lose the recreational use of this stretch of the river, but I think it's hard to justify keeping these in place, given both the economic and environmental realities of the situation.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 20th, 2013, 2:36 pm
by Gman12
Removal? What makes you say that? Aren't they just talking about ceasing operation?

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 20th, 2013, 3:05 pm
by lordmoke
Glad to hear they're finally moving on this. Does this mean we can replace that piece of the Stone Arch Bridge that got cut out? Haha.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 20th, 2013, 3:59 pm
by MNdible
Removal? What makes you say that? Aren't they just talking about ceasing operation?
Well, that's probably true, at least in the short term. Longer term, they'll require repair and maintenance, and I'd expect that they will actually be removed instead of repairing expensive locks that aren't used.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 7:34 am
by mnmike
I don't know if I like this, mostly because it will just sit as a vacant decaying waste of space most likely. I would rather see use encouraged for recreation(the St. Anthony lock)...watching this thing can actually be a draw, silly as it seems. Also, either way, the carp will find their way up if they want to.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 8:19 am
by Tom H.
Doesn't it also seem a bit presumptuous to assume that no one, ever again, will want to have the Upper Mississippi be navigable for large ships? If you take it out, it won't be easy to put back in.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 8:42 am
by mulad
Barges don't really go any farther than the north end of Minneapolis. The head of navigation for everything (without having to pull your boat out of the water to get around obstacles) is the Coon Rapids dam, about 13 miles upstream from the lower lock at St. Anthony Falls. Barge customers only seem to reach about half that far.

I've mapped the whole navigable distance, plus added some markers for the few docks I've been able to find.


Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 9:13 am
by Anondson
If you take out the upper Mississippian locks why not just shut down the old Ford lock and dam. Is there anything between the Ford lock and dam and the st. Anthony lock and dams that takes barge traffic?

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 9:45 am
by Gman12
Removal? What makes you say that? Aren't they just talking about ceasing operation?
Well, that's probably true, at least in the short term. Longer term, they'll require repair and maintenance, and I'd expect that they will actually be removed instead of repairing expensive locks that aren't used.
I definitely don't see it being removed anytime soon. That would be quite the undertaking with a huge price tag. Probably would have to create a temporary dam to divert the water around so they could get in there and dismantle it and then construct a new dam in the locks place. I'm not sure how much maintenance required from keeping it from falling apart, but if they don't have to worry about keeping it operational or falling apart and collapsing, gravity will just keep the doors shut.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 9:52 am
by Tom H.
Those of us who adhere to the Kunstler school are just a little wary of any projects which would intentionally degrade our inland waterway transportation system.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 11:35 am
by phop
Barges don't really go any farther than the north end of Minneapolis. The head of navigation for everything (without having to pull your boat out of the water to get around obstacles) is the Coon Rapids dam, about 13 miles upstream from the lower lock at St. Anthony Falls. Barge customers only seem to reach about half that far.

I've mapped the whole navigable distance, plus added some markers for the few docks I've been able to find.
I believe the 9-foot channel project extends only about half-way to the Coon Rapids dam, which limits barge use to just the lower half.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 11:51 am
by MNdible
If you take out the upper Mississippian locks why not just shut down the old Ford lock and dam. Is there anything between the Ford lock and dam and the st. Anthony lock and dams that takes barge traffic?
Yeah, that's my assumption as well -- it would be both the Upper and Lower St. Anthony Falls locks, as well as Lock #1 at the Ford plant.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: September 25th, 2013, 12:13 pm
by David Greene
Glad to hear they're finally moving on this. Does this mean we can replace that piece of the Stone Arch Bridge that got cut out? Haha.
That is exactly the first thought that crossed my mind.

Seriously, could it be restored even if the lock stays? I think it was ruined to allow ships to navigate, not to accommodate any part of the lock itself.

Re: Upper Mississippi -- No Locks For You

Posted: October 7th, 2013, 12:27 pm
by MNdible
The library has a blog post with a nice photo of the lock under construction. If we were to rebuild it, would we include the weird little encrustation building nestled into one of the arches?

Downtown Minneapolis Riverfront

Posted: November 23rd, 2013, 10:34 pm
by Aville_37
Here is a link from Mill City Times with some cool ideas - lighting the falls, renovating Nicollet Island, etc.

http://millcitytimes.com/news/letter-to ... front.html

Re: Minneapolis Riverfront

Posted: January 13th, 2014, 6:58 pm
by Gman12
There is this master plan in the works. I went to one of the open houses a few months ago and talked with the planners, they were taking input and comment cards from everyone at that point.

http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=1396

The park board owns the little strip of land in front of Riverwest with the dirt parking lot and old Fuji Ya restaurant, which will be torn down according to this article. There is also a cool image of the riverfront from 1950, before the locks were constructed.

http://www.startribune.com/local/minnea ... 58021.html

Re: Minneapolis Riverfront

Posted: January 13th, 2014, 7:06 pm
by David Greene
It was a crime to destroy Spirit Island.

Re: Minneapolis Riverfront

Posted: January 13th, 2014, 9:43 pm
by Didier
I'm having trouble visualizing this. Is the new park just the Fuji-Ya building, or is it going to incorporate more of the underutilized land surrounding it? The building itself is kind of small and on a random location, if that's all it is.

Re: Minneapolis Riverfront

Posted: January 14th, 2014, 7:42 am
by MplsSteve
It's too bad the Fuji-Ya building can't be saved. It was at the very begining of the riverfront renaissance long before anything else, and as such it's historic in its own right. According to the park board, the building is in poor condition, but I wonder if that may be due to the fact that they failed to maintain it.

Re: Minneapolis Riverfront

Posted: January 14th, 2014, 8:42 am
by 5th Ave Guy
Yeah, I thought this sounded like a cool idea after reading that article, but then I was running along the river the other day and realized just how small it really is. Can that really be classified as a "park"?