Blue Line Extension - Bottineau LRT

[Bakken2016]

Any chance they could end at Arbor Lakes instead of an empty field north of 610? I'm not crazy about the faux urbanism that is Arbor Lakes but it has potential. And a lot more possible TOD just west of 169 (not to mention all those massive parking lots at Arbor Lakes). The technical college would be on the way (maybe buy out the surrounding neighborhood and move the community college to the same location? Who knows if Target will even keep that 2nd HQ in the future. Hasn't the trend been away from sprawling suburban office parks?

They are really adamant about not changing the routing on West Broadway, it is all ready engineered. There has been a request from Maple Grove though to look into a spur route into Arbor Lakes.

[DanPatchToget]

When alignment options were still being looked at one of the options was turning west at Brooklyn Boulevard/Elm Creek Boulevard and going into Arbor Lakes. For whatever reason Maple Grove didn't want light rail, so it was a pretty easy choice to go with the route we have today. A shame since the Arbor Lakes area, while still flawed with sprawl and wide car sewers, does have the development to attract transit ridership.

As for sprawling suburban office parks, I haven't seen any signs of that trend slowing down, especially in outer ring areas where there's still plenty of undeveloped land. Why battle traffic in downtown when you can battle traffic at higher speeds in the suburbs?

[SurlyLHT]

I go down 81 often. Past Robbinsdale it's just a sea of cars and pavement. With the railroad tracks and everything else it is just a foreboding place I imagine for anyone on foot. I don't even like to drive down it, I often take W. Broadway because it makes me feel like I am not just in a non-descript wasteland.

North Mpls is already seeing lots built up on W. Broadway. I would challenge folks to drive down it. The Satori building is starting to go up near Cub Foods, the TriConstruction building is looking good. The ironworks for the Juxta HQ are going up and then there is the massive project filling the curve. The Resolute is also goiing to move forward next to the Davis Center. Those who own some of the buildings they probably paid nothing for years ago on W. Broadway will likely make a tidy some. I hope we're able to retain the streetcar era buildings however and the are repurposed.

[Hero]

As for sprawling suburban office parks, I haven't seen any signs of that trend slowing down, especially in outer ring areas where there's still plenty of undeveloped land. Why battle traffic in downtown when you can battle traffic at higher speeds in the suburbs?

Quite a few fortune 500 corporations have moved to urban HQs in the last decade. As for local companies Deluxe and Sleep Number come to mind. Maybe the pandemic will change things but who is to say what Target will do with their north campus.

[Hero]

I wonder converting Broadway in north Minneapolis into something like Washington avenue in the U of M area has been considered. Then cross streets could simply go under Broadway (since no traffic would be able to turn onto Broadway anyway) and we could have a grade separated LRT line at grade.

[Bakken2016]

https://twitter.com/bluelineext/status/ ... Ux6XK5sIWg

Route alignment being released next week!


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[karlshea]

What are the chances Robbinsdale actually withholds municipal consent like they were threatening because the alignment is up Broadway?

[Bakken2016]

Well got this in the mail today, so the routing looks to be along West Broadway, which in my opinion is the better option!


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[Trademark]

This is great news! I just wish there was enough space in between Emerson and Fremont for a station. And a station near Lyndale and Broadway.

[Hero]

Nice to see they picked Broadway. Three stations in Minneapolis seems about right for the little over three miles between Target field and North Memorial. Minneapolis gets 1 station per mile (except downtown), St. Paul gets two stations per mile and Bloomington gets four per mile.

[Nick]

It’s great news, and incredibly wild to see that you can, in fact, just change the route even after spending years and nine figures on planning.

[alexschief]

I never doubted that they would pick Broadway, which has always been the obvious route, but I'm still glad to see it official.

To me, one of the things I'd like to see as the project gets a bit more into detailed design is a look at landscaping every single inch possible of the right-of-way on Broadway, which will otherwise feel extremely grey. European-style tracks on turf is kind of a cliche in American streetcar and LRT planning at this point, but it could actually make a big difference here. Landscaping will be an important thing to get right.

Another big issue will be signal timing. The Broadway route has 18 existing signalized intersections and the plan calls for adding five more. The train will need to blow through these without stopping. To avoid another University Ave situation, Minneapolis needs to get on board early on with a full signal preemption system, and I'd like to see crossing gates considered as well, especially at the diagonal intersections where the visibility of the train will not always be good.

Finally, pedestrian and bike crossings will be something to keep an eye on. This line can't be a high/low barrier in North Minneapolis. As many safe ped/bike crossings as possible need to be included here.

All of these are reasons why I had hoped the line would go underground instead and allow for a total redesign of the street on the surface without major constraints. But you can't always get everything you want, and these objections aren't fatal to the at-grade alternative, they just will require very careful design attention.

[twincitizen]

Given the double lines on the map around Emerson-Fremont, it appears they are keeping open the idea of involving 21st Avenue N, whether that be splitting LRT into one-way pairs on Broadway & 21st, or putting a transit mall on 21st. Jamming everything onto Broadway and pretending that's going to result in a pleasant urban environment for any users...I really hope that's not what we end up with. I'm intrigued by both the split LRT pairs or a transit mall on 21st that would basically leave Broadway alone. It's only one station, so I don't think one-way pairs should be frowned upon here the way they are for entire systems that do that, or run on one-way pairs downtown, etc.

Broadway/21st sub-options are found beginning on page 48 of this PDF (it says 40 on the page, but its 48 in the PDF): https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... -2022.aspx

[Silophant]

I like the 21st Ave part of the transit mall option, but I'm not psyched about it maintaining the existing 4-lane death road configuration on Broadway for those six or seven blocks.

[DanPatchToget]

North Minneapolis residents raise concerns about the Blue Line Extension. https://www.startribune.com/north-minne ... 600174382/

[Bakken2016]

North Minneapolis residents raise concerns about the Blue Line Extension. https://www.startribune.com/north-minne ... 600174382/

Lol, this is just NIMBYISM trying to hide behind a veil. A LRT project is nothing like an interstate ripping through your neighborhood.


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[DanPatchToget]

If only they realized that, but NIMBYs tend to throw logic out the window. Maybe they should take a trip to the Green Line along University Avenue and then walk over to I-94 to see the stark difference.

[tedlanda2571]

...I have no doubt there will be plenty of people ready to whitesplain' to the community how great a light rail line will be!

[DanPatchToget]

...I have no doubt there will be plenty of people ready to whitesplain' to the community how great a light rail line will be!

So what do you propose to bring faster, convenient, and affordable transit to an area with a large population of people who are dependent on transit?

[Mdcastle]

With it being said that I'm a supporter of this project and only knowing one person that actually lives on the North Side, I'm wondering if this is starting to give off the same kinds of vibe / overtones of the North Side Greenway?