Stadium LRT Station, Ped Bridge & Plaza (MSFA block)

[EOst]

Given how much money Minneapolis has spent on public art, wouldn't it be funny if that steaming pile became this city's iconic photo?

[twinkess]

What is on the side of the stadium in the second picture? Looks like a wireframe person holding forth a flag lol

[Rube Dali]

Anyone know when work on the bridge will start?

[David Greene]

What is on the side of the stadium in the second picture? Looks like a wireframe person holding forth a flag lol

A Dalek.

[gpete]

I'm assuming everyone saw the news about the bids for the new Vikings stadium pedestrian bridge? $10 million....

http://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/10/23 ... ing-bridge

I've written to my Met Council rep again. Not expecting a reply. I'm also going to send emails to my state legislators. Maybe they can apply some pressure :/

[Silophant]

Reminder: 6.5M is about a fifth to a quarter of an aBRT line.

[UrbWave]

Is the space above the underground parking part of the ped bridge project? They showed a modified version of it in the rendering but I thought I read somewhere that it's part of another development.

[trigonalmayhem]

I'm so sick of them pissing away public dollars on things like this and crying poverty when it comes to anything that actually benefits normal people.

[Nick]

are you

[John21]

Cost of pedestrian bridge near Vikings stadium surges to $9.65 million

[Archiapolis]

I wish I could say that I'm surprised...I know this is unpopular but I supported the stadium. If I knew that that we would be footing the bill for ALL of the surrounding infrastructure/amenities I probably wouldn't have supported the project.

I used to think it was cartoonish when people argued that the "Wilf's get everything! Blerg!" But, now that we are at/near the halfway point it really does appear that politicians are figuratively falling all over themselves to throw money at this group. We can argue about the "stimulus effect" of the stadium in Downtown East and what would have happened with or without the stadium but as this moves forward it becomes more and more disgusting.

[Didier]

What's hard to understand is that, based on the reported numbers I've seen, this would eventually be profitable for the Vikings. If that's the case, why involve the Vikings at all? Is it just a cash issue?

[HiawathaGuy]

Yes, I think the Met Council knows that this is a demonizing headline. More Taxpayer Waste!! SEE!!!!!!!
What people seem to forget is that while this may be tough to swallow, it makes a hell of a lot more sense to build this now - in 2016, instead of waiting until the Green & Blue Line extensions open in 2020 & 2021, when the bridge will certainly be used a lot more often. I can only imagine what waiting 5 years would do to this price tag.

It's sort of like the comments in another thread about having built portals for a subway tunnel under downtown long before we'd use it... I know it's a bit of stretch, but still it's similar. I just wish Met Council would make this bridge dual purpose - make it somewhat more palatable... have it serve as a better options for Blue to Green transfers and an event day safety plan.

I wish we could hammer that home instead of NO MORE MONEY FOR THE WILFS!!

[HuskyGrad]

Yes, I think the Met Council knows that this is a demonizing headline. More Taxpayer Waste!! SEE!!!!!!!
What people seem to forget is that while this may be tough to swallow, it makes a hell of a lot more sense to build this now - in 2016, instead of waiting until the Green & Blue Line extensions open in 2020 & 2021, when the bridge will certainly be used a lot more often. I can only imagine what waiting 5 years would do to this price tag.

It's sort of like the comments in another thread about having built portals for a subway tunnel under downtown long before we'd use it... I know it's a bit of stretch, but still it's similar. I just wish Met Council would make this bridge dual purpose - make it somewhat more palatable... have it serve as a better options for Blue to Green transfers and an event day safety plan.

I wish we could hammer that home instead of NO MORE MONEY FOR THE WILFS!!

Why would this be used more when the extensions open? Transfers heading the same direction through downtown will be spread out through the 4 downtown stations and transfers between Bottineau and Southwest will take place at Target Field, much like Downtown East is today. The design of the bridge doesn't really do much for platform to platform transfers. It's designed to funnel people from the stadium to the north/westbound platform.

[twincitizen]

I just have a hard time figuring out why we can't push it back a year and re-assess if it's truly necessary. Let's see how crowd control goes without the bridge for one damn season. If it's a total failure we have all of spring/summer 2017 to build it before the next season begins in late August.

[HiawathaGuy]

I just have a hard time figuring out why we can't push it back a year and re-assess if it's truly necessary. Let's see how crowd control goes without the bridge for one damn season. If it's a total failure we have all of spring/summer 2017 to build it before the next season begins in late August.

I can't fault that logic. I get safety being a major concern - but we've figured this out before. If this project was more about improving overall connectivity (Blue to Green) vs. game day flow, I'd like it a lot more. I just feel like it's a major missed opportunity otherwise.

[Wedgeguy]

We would then hear why they did not plan ahead and have this built when they knew there were going to be crowds crossing the tracks issues from the get go. They can't win for losing either way. Had the LRT been design in conjunction with the stadium we would have seen the rail going underground on 5th starting at Portland. Park would be going over the LRT as the portal would have been about there. The station would have been where the 1st level of underground parking now is. The LRT would have surfaces again after going under Chicago and we would have spent money on that scenario instead of a bridge. But to have done that you would have sacrificed the ability to utilize that parking ramp that is under the track. Money would have been spent somewhere along the line to allow people to safely leave the stadium and not getting hit by trains, buses, and automobiles.

[Archiapolis]

We would then hear why they did not plan ahead and have this built when they knew there were going to be crowds crossing the tracks issues from the get go. They can't win for losing either way. Had the LRT been design in conjunction with the stadium we would have seen the rail going underground on 5th starting at Portland. Park would be going over the LRT as the portal would have been about there. The station would have been where the 1st level of underground parking now is. The LRT would have surfaces again after going under Chicago and we would have spent money on that scenario instead of a bridge. But to have done that you would have sacrificed the ability to utilize that parking ramp that is under the track. Money would have been spent somewhere along the line to allow people to safely leave the stadium and not getting hit by trains, buses, and automobiles.

I worked on a proposal to build a project over the underground parking lot so I know how that building works. IF (can't capitalize this enough) Metro Transit/the city/county (whoever owns ROW, etc) had planned better/in conjunction with the stadium, all of the money to create this bridge would have been used to build a center platform and tunneling for pedestrian circulation.

I'll defer to the transit geeks regarding temporary shoring of rail lines, resultant service interruption, etc and other difficulties there but from an urban planning/architecture standpoint, this is a no-brainer solution.

[fehler]

I'd feel better about this design if it went directly into the stadium, or at least ended at an elevated level, rather then an up, across, and down span. Or rather then crossing the tracks and Chicago (it crosses Chicago, right?), if it crossed 4th Street and fed into the skyway being built from the MSFC Ramp. But both of these options would remove people from the plaza and "Front Door" marketing spots.

[mngreg]

Nobody's going to use this. Why take the long way up, over and back down when you can just wait for the train to pass? It would be different if it connected directly to the stadium.