urbanMSP

Jersey barriers being moved on site

Barriers are up for this project. They've blocked off the entire east parking lane *and* the bike lane on 5th Ave, which is nuts given the speed of traffic on that street. Was damn near run over by a weaving driver when I tried to merge this morning.

I think you're getting the bike lane back.

Judging by the webcam it's not only coming back, it's going to be protected: Jersey barriers on either side.

Glory glory hallelujah

I was about to write a Streets.mn post about how every N/S bike lane through downtown is blocked by construction (or about to be, like 11th) but hopefully this will render that moot.

It's still pretty bad. Park has been made extra bad by the MPD squad car parking in the thru-lane next to the blocked bike lane every morning at the entrance to the construction area just north of 9th.

It occurs to me that the "protected bike lane" mentioned above is almost certainly intended as a sidewalk, so the lane is in fact blocked (though I might end up biking it anyway).

It's still pretty bad. Park has been made extra bad by the MPD squad car parking in the thru-lane next to the blocked bike lane every morning at the entrance to the construction area just north of 9th.

It was gone yesterday. Can't remember if it was there today, but don't think so.

Depending who which cop and how they park, I'm never sure what I should do there. If they park on the outside of the lane, I've gone to the inside of them (slowly) which has worked okay.

I went by on the bus today and there was a sign that said the bike lane was closed, it completely blocked the entrance to it. The sign also said that automobiles and bikes should share the road for now.

So I've noticed these police officers at a number of construction sites downtown. I presume they are mostly there for traffic control. Who ultimately pays for these officers, since they are being taken out of regular duty?

I think we should have a really great discussion on construction traffic control somewhere... somewhere that doesn't make me/us have to go through hundreds of pages to find information on the Kraus-Anderson HQ site.

Old Kraus-Anderson HQ is being torn down today!

Went by it this morning around 10ish and they're really going to town on it. Can't say I'll miss that building

Here is a closer view than the webcam gives:

Kraus Anderson block demolition Minneapolis 4-13-16 by Matt Bappe, on Flickr

Was surprised there was no basement in the KA HQ. Makes for a quick demo though!

There is a basement for part of it on the NE side. On the sidewalk you can see it has a skylight: https://www.google.com/maps/@44.9724288 ... 312!8i6656

You're right! And it did kinda look like an original building with an addition later. Maybe original had a basement.

Was surprised there was no basement in the KA HQ. Makes for a quick demo though!

Yeah! This was one of the quickest demo jobs i've seen downtown in quite awhile. Also, don't see many demolition sites that have concrete barriers around it stamped with the logo of the building they are demoing

anyone know if they are keeping the mature trees in front of the old building? they are some of the biggest ones around...

They're already gone.