Met Council to Seek Highway Expansion Funds from Feds
The Metropolitan Council is in fact looking to use federal infrastructure money to support new road building. At its January 12 meeing, the Metropolitan Council's Transportation Committee will hear public comment on a proposal to revise the region's transportation spending plan to include 11 major highway expansion projects. The Met Council is specificially including these new projects in the draft 2030 Transportation Policy Plan in the hopes that they will be funded through an economic stimulus package.
To take action, contact the Metropolitan Council and let them know that our region wants to prioritize transit, walking and bicycling in a forward-looking transportation package.
Public comments are due January 12, 2009 at 4pm and can be submitted:
- Mail: Metropolitan Council Data Center, 390 Robert St. N., St. Paul, MN 55101
- Email: data.center@metc.state.mn.us
- Fax: 651-602-1464
- Public Comment Line: 651-602-1500
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Comments
I added a couple of attachments re highway expansion
One of the highway expansion projects in the Met Council's proposal is I-35W from 46th Street to I-94 through south Minneapolis. This project is part of a long lived proposal to widen I-35 to "maximum buildout".
Because of staunch local opposition the project was never approved and was subsequentlly broken up into smaller sections in an attempt to get it through local opposition. The current 62/35 expansion south of 46th street is one part of the original project.
I've attached a rendering and a detialed layout of the proposed "35W Access Project" which is yet another piece of the original highway expansion plan. As the rendering and design layout communicate, the proposal would turn Lake Street into a 7 lane road around 35W in addition to adding flyover ramps from I-35 directly to 28th Street which would add an even larger auto traffic barrier between our neighborhoods than currently exists on the 4-lane one-way that is 28th Street.
It's not clear (to me) if the "Access Project" is a part of this Met Council proposal or just the widening of I-35. Either way, a widening of I-35 is a bad idea and would certaily lead to presure to build the very expensive and very unecessary "Access Project".
my observations
I like how 35W functions right now with only half the concrete it is suppose to have. Any chance we can get our friends out on a sunny day with some coffee and watch how it is working now (with construction).
If we do expand, lets make sure we do it for LRT or BRT, not to increase auto capacity.
My impression of the I-35W Access Project
My impression of the I-35W Access Project differs considerably. My understanding is that one of the key elements is to funnel traffic off 35th/36th Streets (returning them to two-way neighborhood streets) and onto Lake and 38th Streets — two commercial thoroughfares that have not had direct access from I-35W. This would be done by eliminating the I-35W entry/exit ramps at 35th & 36th Streets and adding entry/exits ramps at 38th and a southbound exit and northbound entry ramp at Lake.
Additionally, the project would provide a HOT Lane (replacing the PDSL – Priced Dynamic Shoulder Lane — that will be used in the interim) from 42nd to downtown. And a "real" transit station would be built on I-35W at Lake (a la the 46th St. Station) with a future station at 38th Street.
The Excess Project Redux
Funny how these projects keep getting introduced after citizens have made clear for YEARS that they neither need nor want them.
But corporations often get their way, and they want "access" to Lake Street. Allina, Wells Fargo, and probably the other new health sciences corridor businesses want their (suburban, often single-occupancy) employees to drive to work quickly, preferably without having to see any of the inner city along the way. Our mayor works hard to ensure that these corporations are satisfied, and I'm sure our Chamber of Commerce is worried about the impact of the recession on them.
My guess, however, is that Lake Street will survive an economic recession far better than most places in this city, so the argument that we need this project to boost businesses because of the current economy is poppycock. What rebuilt Lake Street to begin with were those small, sustainable, minority-owned businesses. They operated on a shoestring all along, and they catered to the locals from the start.
And yes, some people support this project simply because they want the ramps moved from 35 and 36th to 38th Street (and Wizard is right: federal law would require that they be moved if the ramps are built on Lake). But 38th isn't exclusively a business corridor: it includes lots of residential homes. Many of the people who support the Excess Project simply want the ramps moved out of THEIR neighborhood and onto somebody else's. They don't seem to mind the fact that moving the ramps to 38th will require tearing up additional neighborhoods, so long as it isn't theirs. And what never gets discussed is the fact that 38th will eventually need to be widened if the ramps are moved.
But here's the largest elephant in the room: Peak Oil. We can continue to act like the way out of a recession/depression is to build roads, but if we do, we're digging our own graves. We're running out of oil, and in the near future, most of us won't be able to afford to drive a car. If we're going to prepare for that inevitability, what we need is increased transit and more walkable communities: if we're going to survive or allow this planet to survive, we need to stop building for an auto-centric past and actually prepare to live in a sustainable future.