Green Line / Central Corridor construction thread (archive)

[mulad]

spectre000 had a photo of it recently. It's looking pretty nice.


Image link

[UptownSport]

Think that should support a tire- Not as if someone driving over tracks wouldn't have been foreseen- inadvertently snow removal equipment when there's a white-out

[mulad]

Todays test train finally left 10th St station in DT St Paul a few minutes ago, for anyone who wants to chase it down in this dreary weather today. Mpls bound.

[spearson]

It's no surprise really, I see people every day driving on the tracks in minneapolis, especially right in front of the 5th street towers.

[web]

reporter was all confused. On 4th st there is a complete crossover built with no paving. This is what was damaged including the metal switchs. Regular track embedded in pavement is driven on in almost every light rail system in the world. For years I drove on shared track and traffic lane in dt sacramento! why people think light rail always require separate right of way is beyond me, but then here we also share light rail vehicles all the time as does portland oregon and san jose used to.

[NickP]

I thought this was a good read. I hope you all like it too.
http://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2013/ ... ntum-shift

[MNdible]

I really hate the way Marlys Harris writes.

[woofner]

When it comes to interruption of businesses along the LRT line itself, 100 enterprises have opened, and a nearly equal batch went under or moved off the corridor. The net gain has been two businesses.

I thought LRT construction would cause a small business holocaust? Could it be that the small businesses that Americans fetishize (and then ignore in favor of Walmart and McDonalds) are misrepresenting their losses in order to get government handouts?

[Didier]

I really hate the way Marlys Harris writes.

I agree. I'm glad MinnPost covers development, but I don't know why their reporter covers it in first person with a sarcastic and self-deprecating tone. I'm also not thrilled that MinnPost has a prominent daily feature that essentially siphons the reporting from other local media outlets (The Daily Glean, or whatever), but that's for another topic.

[twincitizen]

Hear hear. She is the worst.

The Cityscape column used to be one of my favorite things on the internet and Steve Berg was really influential in my developing urbanist thinking. Steve Dornfeld took a different, wonkier approach to it, but still wrote some great pieces. I was disappointed when he stepped down as well.

Marlys just treats it like some personal blog and the frequency is so low I barely bother to check. When I started giving MinnPost $5/month, it was specifically for CityScape. Now it's for everything but.

/offtopic

[talindsay]

So, looking for something old in my account at work I stumbled across this image from 2007 about how they envisioned the Cedar station. The reality looks decent, but this would have been better, IMO:

Cedar Street_reduced.jpg

[trkaiser]

That is nice. My buddy worked for the city at that time, and I was able to get my hands on the big book of plans for the entire St. Paul end of the line. They were great plans, glassy new skyscrapers and all...

[mulad]

It probably doesn't deserve it's own thread, so I'll put it here: The CVS at Snelling & University was built contingent on the fact that if light rail ever happened, a street-facing entrance would be added. There's a 2004 agreement to that effect. In theory, the city could tear down the structure for being out of compliance with the site plan, though that seems unlikely. CVS says they're still planning out what to do to change the building, but aren't giving any details.

http://finance-commerce.com/2013/05/st- ... that-door/

[mattaudio]

You have a FC subscription?!?!

[Snelbian]

If it happens that will be a very welcome change. It seems that every time the topic of new developments on transit lines and pedestrian-heavy areas comes up in Saint Paul, that CVS is brought up as the prime example of what not to do.

[lordmoke]

Vertical skyway link approved for St. Paul Central Station. This is great news.
http://finance-commerce.com/2013/05/st- ... t-station/

[mulad]

I haven't been able to get excited about that very much. The St. Paul Athletic Club building has an elevator and is on the same block, and the Alliance Bank building also has an elevator bank across the street. I don't know when those entrances open in the morning or close in the evening, though. Most of the St. Paul skyway officially stays open until 2 am (a few government buildings close earlier, and the Macy's skyway also closed early when they were still in business), but many building entrances start closing around 5:30 or 6 pm on weekdays. The skyway officially reopens at 6 am.

So I suppose in other words, I'm far more supportive of this in terms of it being a proper public entrance that opens early and stays open late (assuming it actually does) than I am of it as an improvement for mobility or number of points of access.

[lordmoke]

I guess that's where my excitement in this lies as well- it will be the first highly visible public vertical circulator between the skyway system and the street in the Twin Cities- something I know a lot of us have talked about. Hopefully this catches on.

[widin007]

http://www.startribune.com/local/stpaul/207243531.html

There is a picture of the idiot who drove on the tracks. Why do people just have no regard for anything? I bet that saved him 5 minutes though! ugh

[mulad]

Finance & Commerce has a paywalled article about the Lowertown O&M facility. Here's one detail I know folks have asked about -- The facility can handle up to 35 LRVs, so most of the Green Line vehicles will be stored there, but some (12, according to the article) will be stored at the Franklin Avenue facility.

Edit: Oops, forgot the link -- http://finance-commerce.com/2013/05/cen ... ompletion/

F&C's photo set from a tour of the new Lowertown facility is on Flickr (low resolution, but better than nothing):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/financeand ... 489434138/