urbanMSP

Part of me is kinda glade Hopkins is the first place to get track laid

But the fact that the image they used has the Honda dealership is in full view less then 100ft away from the station still kinda stings

That's why I propose (jokingly) that they rename it Hopkins Honda Station.

Would be nice if Excelsior Boulevard were calmed and more pedestrian- and bike-oriented so 1) it's easier getting between the station and downtown Hopkins and 2) the entire stretch from the western edge of Minneapolis to Hopkins is more pleasant and easy to access without a car. People who want to drive fast can use Highway 7.

I still wish the dealership was willing to move to the empty lot they already own right across the street, but oh well. Do agree with improving pedestrian/bike infrastructure on excelsior since I've biked on it and it ranges from "not fun" to "life-threatening".

Although I can already see some people arguing along the lines of "you don't need bike lanes on excelsior, you already have the cedar lake trail

Part of me is kinda glade Hopkins is the first place to get track laid

But the fact that the image they used has the Honda dealership is in full view less then 100ft away from the station still kinda stings

That's why I propose (jokingly) that they rename it Hopkins Honda Station.

Would be nice if Excelsior Boulevard were calmed and more pedestrian- and bike-oriented so 1) it's easier getting between the station and downtown Hopkins and 2) the entire stretch from the western edge of Minneapolis to Hopkins is more pleasant and easy to access without a car. People who want to drive fast can use Highway 7.

Maybe a trade of a 4-3 conversion on excelsior with an interchange at 7 and blake

It's obviously silly that a good chunk of the walkshed is taken up by an enormous car dealership, but at the same time, that's nothing that can't change in the future. I have to believe a time will come where it will be in the dealer's best financial interest to sell the land (no doubt at an enormous profit, if you look at what was developed just across the street), and move to a cheaper lot (with lower taxes) somewhere along a highway. It would be nice if the process could be accelerated a bit, though. I wonder if Hopkins could rezone it as mixed use, for instance.

Re: Excelsior Boulevard, obviously I'm always in favor of new bike lanes/traffic calming/road diets/etc, but it seems like it's really just the one intersection at 8th Street that desperately needs to be improved, right? From a pedestrian perspective, there's a whole lot of nothing along this street, so I think the most important thing would be making it safe and pleasant to go between the LRT/trail and Downtown. Bigger bumpouts, pedestrian islands, dropping some turn lanes, and (if I'm being greedy) raised/tabled crosswalk and trail crossings would go a long way without necessarily waiting to redo the whole road.

It sort of depends on what they're actually going to build at Shady Oak. I know it's not a full maintenance facility, but I'm not super clear what the ultimate plans are there.

For this project there is no plans to build any train facilities there, they are building an expansion on the Franklin Facility to handle the new trains. They will be building a Track Maintenance building in Hopkins that will handle all the support vehicles and materials for the repair of the line similar to what is at Hiawatha and 26th st by United Noodles

What about just closing down 8th avenue and building a pedestrian bridge across?

8th Avenue, where the cyclists using the Lake Minnetonka Regional Trail crosses Excelsior?

No one will use a ped bridge there, if you could even fit one in that wouldn’t eliminate the low income apartments’ parking on the old 2nd St.

What about just closing down 8th avenue and building a pedestrian bridge across?

I don't think a bridge is needed to cross that section of excelsior, while it is a strode it isn't as masive as some of the other ones around the cities and I think they might of narrowed it a bit by removing some turn right lanes. But some improvements could be made still like lowering the speed limit from 40 to 35-30, removing the center median (although iirc its only about 5-10 ft), and maybe doing a 4-3 conversion in between shady oak rd and maybe 5th if not all the way to Blake.

Any one here have knowledge of hydrology near the chain of lakes? Wondering whether the drought conditions we are facing currently might help to improve the issues with the high water table with the Kenniworth tunnel construction. It would seem to me that things would be drying out a lot this summer since Minneapolis hasn't received much rain possibly improving conditions for constructing the tunnel...

General observations from construction: The stations at Wooddale and Belt Line are starting to take shape. I noticed at the grade crossing with Belt Line there's a traffic signal for northbound traffic in addition to the railroad crossing signals. Anyone know why that's there?

About where is the light placed?

Where the light rail tracks will cross the road. The traffic signal also has one of those flashing lights with a train symbol like on University and along Hiawatha.

Interesting. I wonder if it is some type of safety measure that is done at crossings that are upgraded to quiet zone crossings.

Part of me is kinda glade Hopkins is the first place to get track laid

But the fact that the image they used has the Honda dealership is in full view less then 100ft away from the station still kinda stings

Lol yea.. almost a front page story in Onion News!

“After decades of no transit access, low income communities members eagerly board trains to newly transit accessible Honda dealership to finance reliable and affordable transportation options”

Murcia!

Thank all that is good for the Onion haha

I had to

I spent more than a month living in close proximity to the future Opus Station. A quick few observations.

-The area does have potential! My previous experience, I wanted to leave as soon as possible due to the confusing road design. But pedestrian experience, at least in the summer was pretty good. The confusing road system seems to be efficient.

-Many properties that could easily be put to a higher use such as multi family housing. The Rize seemed to be full and the pool seemed to get good use. That setup could be replicated a dozen times easily within the the area. Given the density of seemingly high paying jobs I would think that something akin to high-end row houses could do well.

-Traveling East and North is pretty easy on foot. The walk across HWY 169 via Bren/Londonderry is about as pleasant as possible given they are six lane and four lane roads.

-The station is mostly complete, I wonder how large of an area the walkshed will actually encompass? If it can go west to UNH in the east, 62ish to the South, Semtana Rd in the north, and Shady Oak to the west, a nice little area.

I am more bullish on this station than I was two months ago.

Freight rail line had soil settle below it along the Kenilworth corridor near Cedar Lake Pkwy.

https://twitter.com/SouthwestLRT/status ... 9620798464

I guess now they'll get an uninterrupted day of work on the tunnel.

Edit - read the tweets. Or not.

Random thought when I caught the friends of the 261 doing some testing today, it might be interesting to do a event/meetup like the old northstar, A line, and Red line ones but using the SWLRT to either take the SWLRT to Minneapolis and hop on the excursion train or try to time a SWLRT train to follow along while it makes its way through Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, and Hopkins.

Either one is probably unlikely since I don't know how many would willing pay $80+ for a ticket for the former or how hard it would be to time the later, but it would be cool to experience trains from two different eras running in the same corridor at the same moment.

I'm definitely looking forward to opportunities to record short races between light rail trains and freight trains (and the 261 excursions).

On a negative note: I think it's a question of when, not if, someone gets hit by a train at Wooddale, Belt Line, or 21st Street because they see a light rail train stopped at the station, assume that's what's making the crossing signals activate, and then they get hit by a light rail train or a freight train on a different track. I believe in Chicago at some multiple track grade crossings on Metra routes they have an audible announcement that another train is approaching so people don't assume there's only one train. Not sure if they'll try that here, or if it'll just be the signs that flash "Second Train" like on our existing light rail lines. No matter what is done though I feel like it can't be prevented. The only way to truly prevent it from happening is grade-separating those crossings, which of course won't happen.

Edit: Here's an example of that audible warning at a grade crossing on a New Jersey Transit commuter rail line. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQbmeZfxjO0