Road Construction needs better planning
The Como neighborhood has been dealt repeated blows in just about every type of civic infrastructure — with the exception of road building. In that arena, there has been an abundance of projects — sometimes doing the same section many times over. The result has been almost continuous construction over the last three years, and not necessarily in the places that need it most, like 33rd Avenue or north of East Hennepin Avenue, where they can’t get a chunk of new road to save themselves.
When it comes to 15th or Como avenues, both have been completely shut down for months at a time. Many people have been frustrated by the continual shutdown of Como Avenue at 22nd Avenue, first to make way for a railroad bridge replacement that was supposed to be completed in July, 2006; and now to make way for city work, which has been further delayed by pesky footings.
If you want to get onto the highway (I-35W) towards Downtown or northbound from University, good luck. 35W is ripped up from Stinson south to the river bridge, both ways, including the Stinson, East Hennepin and University Avenue exits that link to Como. It’s getting to the point where you have to have a map of every Minneapolis side street committed to memory just to get around town.
Increased congestion equals increased pollution and frustration, which can lead to all types of deleterious effects. The question then becomes: who is doing this planning? Or, is there any planning involved at all? Is there any coordination between the city and the state highway construction projects? It doesn’t seem like there has been much, if any. Sure, roads need to be fixed in the summer months, but how many times do we repave the same section, and in how many years? Also, how many routes to one area do you shut down, and what is the traffic plan, just cross your fingers and hope for the best?
If this is the approach, I would say we can do better. Since roads are so much work, it seems high time we look into building other people-moving infrastructure that is more efficient and has better long-term benefits, rather than having to be continually ripped up and worked on. In the meantime, a little forethought and planning can go a long way to solving the traffic problems, which are a relatively easy in the context of many other societal issues.
last revised: August 15, 2007