Street, Road and Highway Projects

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » November 14th, 2013, 3:45 pm

Here's the presser for the 10 "corridors of commerce"
http://mn.gov/governor/newsroom/pressre ... =102-93794

mamundsen
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mamundsen » November 14th, 2013, 4:38 pm

Is see 694 is getting a dynamic shoulder lane from Rice to Lexington. I wonder why this isn't a full third lane from 35W to 35E? I thought the ultimate goal after the pinch points were improved was a third lane. We've seen 694/35e fixed, hwy 10/Snelling almost complete, and there are plans for 35W redo. Is there still a restriction?

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » November 14th, 2013, 4:47 pm

Rice was the western boundary of the 35E/694 project, and Lexington was the eastern boundary of the 10/51/694 project. Those projects included space for a third mainline in each direction, even if it's not used today due to the edges of the project. My guess is that this is a high impact and relatively low cost way to connect those two gaps.

I have no idea why they'd skip the last half mile between 35W and 10. But maybe they figure it's not as much of a pinch point east of 35W and six laning that stretch could actually make the 694/35W cloverleaf worse.

mulad
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mulad » November 15th, 2013, 9:56 am

Someone added flyovers as a proposed modification to the I-35W/I-694 cloverleaf on OpenStreetMap a while back. I'm not sure if that's an official plan anywhere or not, though.

http://osm.org/go/WqKLysnf

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » November 15th, 2013, 11:00 am

Here's a design I had proposed a few years ago. http://goo.gl/maps/ugXji
I still don't understand why MnDOT is considering a flyover from southbound 35W to eastbound 694 when they are nearly finished upgrading the Hwy 10 cutoff to serve this exact function.

Mdcastle
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Mdcastle » November 16th, 2013, 2:23 pm

I'm guessing that the major movement is between south and west, so you want a flyover for that and the opposite movement gets a flyover just to eliminate the weave. Kind of like the original design for US 169 and I-494. But I don't really get it either, if you have two flyovers it makes sense to me to have the two intermediate volume movements have them, not a major movement and an inconsequential movement. I'd suggested just eliminating the south to east movements since US 10 can handle that, like US 212 is for US 169. It's possible this may happen since Mn/DOT had to fight the FHWA tooth and nail to not have to build the second flyover on US 169, but maybe since it seems to be working out fine it would be OK to do the same thing up north.

Wedgeguy
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Wedgeguy » November 16th, 2013, 3:58 pm

If my memory service me correct, there is a larger railroad bridge overpass that would have to be replaced, I think as it is, they can't expand lanes anymore, This is at about Rice Street. I think that the outside lane, west bound, is limited as an exit to Rice street. I was surprised that they did not also include this section with what they just rebuilt. But I would guess limited funds and I still say there will have to be a railroad bridge replacement and expansion. That would have to be negotiated with the RR before they can work to replace that. There would have to be design work for the enter/exits to Rice Street as a part of that RR rebuild.

twincitizen
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby twincitizen » November 20th, 2013, 3:36 pm

The Richfield Parkway north connection (to Bloomington Avenue) is now open: http://www.startribune.com/local/west/232560751.html

This provides an additional connection to Cedar Point Commons (SuperTarget, Home Depot, et al) from South Minneapolis and the Bloomington Ave exit on Hwy. 62. Also, Bloomington Avenue now has bike lanes/sharrows for its entire stretch through Richfield.

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » November 20th, 2013, 3:56 pm

Did they have to boot people out of those houses on the west side of 17th? Or did they just wait for them to sell?

Wedgeguy
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Wedgeguy » November 25th, 2013, 8:54 pm

The people had been waiting for some time for the city to buy them. They were not booted out. Most wanted to sell as from what I've read in the past.

Mdcastle
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Mdcastle » November 29th, 2013, 4:10 pm

From what I recall it was always the plan to buy out the strip of houses, but since it didn't absolutely need to be done there wasn't money budgeted for it originally. This left the residents in a bad situation- pointless to remodel the kitchen or otherwise invest in their properties, but virtually impossible to sell with a future buyout and front yards facing what became a busy street and Home Depot parking lot and having to put up with living with that.

MNdible
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby MNdible » January 6th, 2014, 3:34 pm

Does anybody know if there are plans to reduce / eliminate signalized intersections on Highway 55 between the Minnesota River and Highway 52?

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » January 7th, 2014, 9:37 am

Eagan and/or Dakota County have a plan for grade separation at Argenta Trail/Yankee Doodle. I think this is too close to the Robert Trail diamond for an interchange, but I think that was studied too.

For the rest of it, I think we're stuck. It's 80s/90s-era MnDOT expressway-stoplight-hell vintage. This was cemented with the way the 55/35E/494 interchange was designed three decades ago.

The main safety issue is westbound 55 approaching Dodd when the speed limit goes from 65 MPH to 55 and there's a tight curve with limited sightlines. It needs some signage, yellow lights, or something to change the perception for drivers.

Beyond that, there could be the opportunity for strategic grade separation near Dodd.

Tcmetro
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Tcmetro » January 7th, 2014, 3:42 pm

55/149 will be reconstructed soon, and MnDot recommended the stoplight option despite the fact that Eagan wanted a grade separated option. This is probably for the better, considering any grade separation will likely shift traffic patterns towards Hiawatha and 62 instead of 494.
Additionally, MnDot and Inver Grove are looking into a new interchange at 494 and Delaware, which is likely going to open the area up to development.

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » January 10th, 2014, 2:25 pm

http://www.startribune.com/local/blogs/239638401.html
Walking in Mpls & the Ped Advisory Cmte

Tcmetro
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Tcmetro » February 12th, 2014, 8:44 pm

Richfield to slim Nicollet and Penn down to 3-lane streets this summer:
http://cityofrichfield.org/index.aspx?page=776

Open houses were held about the proposed reconstructions of 66th and Portland and their associated reduction to 3 lanes recently as well:
http://cityofrichfield.org/index.aspx?page=682

After this, just Lyndale needs a lane reduction, and then the city of Richfield will be much more friendly to its pedestrians and bicyclists.

I hope Bloomington can pick up on the wisdom and do some more 3-lane conversions. Nicollet and maybe Old Shakopee would be excellent candidates.

Mdcastle
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Mdcastle » February 17th, 2014, 6:36 pm

Nicollet and Portland would be no brainers as far as 3 lane conversion. Most of 66th and Old Shakopee are near the 20,000 limit where conversions start to impact car traffic, with 66th and Old Shakopee near I-35W well over it.

I notice in the handout they used a stock photo of a traffic signal with LEDs that haven't been installed in over 10 years, and a signal style that's never been used here, and I-494 is mis-labeled "I-394".

102nd street by me has recently been converted from 4 to 2 lanes, but it's still too close to traffic for a number of people. I always rode on the sidewalks around the neighborhood as a kid, and I don't think I would have used the shoulder on the street.

Tcmetro
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Tcmetro » February 19th, 2014, 8:28 pm

I saw one of the new Route 565 (Target North-Richfield) buses today (apparently service actually began on Monday) with 1 rider on it. Hopefully it can attract enough riders to become a permanent route.

mattaudio
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby mattaudio » February 19th, 2014, 9:21 pm

Clearly if the Target North campus is not compatible with bus service, we should build expensive light rail there!

Tcmetro
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Re: Street, Road and Highway Projects

Postby Tcmetro » February 19th, 2014, 9:42 pm

Totally posted in the wrong thread, meant to post in the "public transit news" one.


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