urbanMSP

Looking at the renderings again... I still think it is CRAZY that there are cars involved in this. It should be ped and LRT. It will be a nightmare to get into and out of that ramp on game days.

I agree with you that the curb cut shown here is unfortunate.

However, I don't think the primary use of the Interchange parking garage will be for gameday parking. For one, it's only a couple hundred spaces. Secondly, I figured its primary use was for employees of Hennepin County, Covanta, Met Transit, retail tenants, etc. and storage of vehicles for those same organizations. I know there is a public parking component to this, but I highly doubt it will be advertised as a gameday amenity. Even if so, it would be 100% full long before any real crowds arrive on the plaza or in the surrounding area. Getting out during the post-game crush, yeah that could be tough.

http://oxblue.com/open/knutson/interchange
They have added a 4th webcam, showing a reverse angle with Target Field in the background.

The Junction Flats apartment building is visible in the background of Angle 2, now at least 3 stories of stick and growing out of frame. The District 600 apartments (Fulton wrap-around site) does not appear to be above ground yet, but it's only partially visible in angles 2 & 3. That one is probably being slowed by the partial collapse of the Weather-Rite building next door.

This whole area is going to be incredibly transformed by next spring, and that's before the Shapco site is even touched.

Does anyone know why in this "interchange" there is no easy way to get from the main bike trail to the northstar platform or up to the light rail despite passing the station by 5 feet? This seems like a HUGE oversight/flaw they may want to think about correcting.

Does anyone know why in this "interchange" there is no easy way to get from the main bike trail to the northstar platform or up to the light rail despite passing the station by 5 feet?

Because The Interchange is not about transportation?

Has someone confirmed this to be true? Wouldn't they at least put a stairway down to the bike trail, if not an elevator?

Perhaps a bike connection is planned for the commuter rail phase of the project, given how that aspect of it will deal much more with connecting the rail trench to the surface. You know, if it ever actually happens.

I have thought this is a problem since Target Field was built. I think it has to do with the alignment. The bike highway does not have any exits from Glenwood until the space behind Bachelor Farmer.

Although for a game, coming from the west the exit at Glenwood is pretty spectacular. The majority of bike racks are near gate 14. This allows you to avoid the mess that is the LRT and Northstar platforms.

My wife, sister-in-law, and I biked to the July 4 game this summer and didn't realize that we had to exit at Glenwood. We went all the way under the stadium, got confused in the parking lot on the north side where we couldn't find a way out, and finally went back to Glenwood to get out. Part of that was clearly my fault for not figuring out the best way from the trail to TF, but part of that was also a lack of signage and exits to the single biggest destination along the trail.

Oh, and in a case of fool-me-once, fool-me-twice my wife and I got all confused a few weeks later coming the other direction when we exited the trail just north of 1st St to explore the North Loop a little bit and didn't realize that was the only way to get back in. We got denied at 2nd St and Washington before backtracking. I know now that we could have gone behind the Dock Street Apts and gotten back on the trail in that parking lot. But at the time it was incredibly frustrating to see the trail right there and not be able to access it.

Exactly my frustration! I was walking along the path from the direction of the river. When I got to the Northstar platform I realized the only way onto it or to the light rail was over the chainlink fence and a set of tracks. The shortest possible route was across the entire parking lot, cutting onto 3rd ave to get around the strip club and minnekada storage and across the 5th st bridge. On a bike it is dumb but manageable. Huge pedestrian fail. This is compounded since they removed that shortcut staircase onto the 3rd st viaduct that let you cut across the Great North Loop Chasm. Please put that back. It was also a nice escape route from crazy guys who like to disperse broken vacuum cleaner parts and smoke things out of sideways pop cans on that walkway.

Incidentally, they just yesterday finished paving the eponymous street next to the Dock St Apts, so there is a dec connection to Washington again finally. I was supremely disappointed by the city's failure to actually connect the Cedar Lake Trail to anything downtown, or even put up any signage. There is literally not one sign pointing to the trail entrance by the fed, and the only bike infrastructure it connects to is the Sidewalk Bikeway on Twins Way (which the city built to teach cyclists to ride on the sidewalk) and the turn lane bike lane on 11th St. Sure the Cedar Lake Trail was expensive enough already but signs are pretty cheap.

Anyway, I'm guessing the reason the Cedar Lake Trail doesn't have a direct connection to the Northstar platform has to do with the strange way Metro Transit implemented the goto readers. They have a separate reader for each station because they mostly all have different fares. I'm sure they didn't want to replicate that arrangement on the platform. Not sure why they don't just put a selector on the goto reader like most other zone-based systems do. There is of course a connection between the trail and the platform, but it's through a locked gate and only used by staff.

So... seems like the biggest mobility gain from this project is the elevator for the tower crane operator.

So... seems like the biggest mobility gain from this project is the elevator for the tower crane operator.

I thought they just climed a ladder.

May 17 is the official planned opening date, according to comments from today's Passenger Rail Forum meeting. Not sure if there will be a soft open before that or not.

This seems more like a civic vanity project rather than something that will benefit a large number of people. Nobody lives around here except for rich condo owners who are going to be driving anyway, nobody goes here except for Twins fans on game day, the rest of the time the Hiawatha line is always empty by the time it gets to the stadium, and the Northstar has low ridership. If the Southwest and Bottineau corridors don't get built as planned I bet this becomes the most expensive transit stop per user that the Metropolitan Council has ever built. I have serious doubts about the competence of this era's Council when it comes to planning transit improvements. They seem more interested in making it look like they are doing things rather than actually doing things that are useful. I wonder how many of them use transit on a regular basis or have lived without a car for extended periods of time.

This thing is a toy for politicians and bureaucrats.

It *is* a vanity project.

Blaming the Met Council is a little off-target. Sure, they technically could have killed the project but politically that's just not realistic given the power behind it. No, the blame for this one falls straight on Hennepin County.

I am vain as well as high maintenance so I guess I fit in the category where I like this. I did like the wealthy condo owners comment. Money is a bad thing.

Nobody lives around here except for rich condo owners who are going to be driving anyway.

Although I have agreed in previous posts that the cost/benefit of this project makes me raise an eyebrow, the way you put it makes you sound like an ass. Not sure what you consider rich, but if you mean enough income to pay the taxes that will ultimately fund this project, then yes, rich. Between two of us we own one car (hey, it's not New York City) but we use light rail, walking, or car2go 90% of the time. I'm sure you can find a few of the 5000 nobodies who live within half a mile that fit your stereotype, but even for a stereotype it's fairly ignorant. Too bad because you dilute a reasonable argument.

Not sure what you consider rich, but if you mean enough income to pay the taxes that will ultimately fund this project, then yes, rich.

While I generally agree with the sentiment of your post, many people don't realize they *are* rich. A two-income household can pretty easily score in the top 10%. I would bet dollars to donuts that a lot of couples living in those condos are in fact rich. That doesn't mean they're bad people, but they likely do have a good income.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_ ... ted_States