Lake Street paving project to begin May 16th

The long-anticipated Lake Street paving project finally got underway on Monday, May 16. It will be done in phases, and traffic will be restricted on Lake Street, but the street will not be closed in either direction.

This year construction will focus on the stretch from 5th Avenue to 14th Avenue, and next year it will focus on the section from 14th Avenue to 21st Avenue. Even the section from 5th to 14th will be broken into phases, so that the section from 5th to Chicago Avenue will be done separately from the section from Chicago to 14th. Parking will be temporarily eliminated from the section under construction, but traffic will be allowed to continue in both directions on one side of the street while construction commences on the other side.

It will be up to the construction company that wins the bid to determine on which side of Chicago Avenue to begin, but most observers believe it will begin with the section from 5th Avenue to Chicago.

The Lake Street Council and the Midtown Community Works Partnership have been working to secure parking for patrons of Lake Street businesses affected by the construction. A & J Fish and Chicken at 500 East Lake has offered its lot, and the Workforce Center at Chicago Avenue has donated its lot for weekend parking. On the east side of Chicago Avenue, U. S. Bank at 919 East Lake is donating 20 spaces from its lot; Christ Church at 12th Avenue is donating 15 spaces; the Hostess Thrift Shop is donating 12 spaces.

Buses will be rerouted around the construction project to 31st Street.
Critics of the paving project complained that widening the street would encourage the automobile to the detriment of other more earth-friendly means of transportation. According to Jim Grube, the Director and County Engineer in charge of the project, the width of Lake Street will actually be narrowed by a few inches.

The cul de sacs off Lake Street at Elliot and 10th Avenues have been a major concern of residents in Parkside West in the Powderhorn Neighborhood. Hennepin County has agreed to bring $50,000 to the table to help build the cul de sacs. That was before Chicago Lake Liquor threatened to sue the City and forced them to re-open Elliot Avenue. The liquor store complained that people were turning onto Elliot off of Lake Street and, seeing that it was a dead-end, were turning around in their driveway. This has forced the City to plan to purchase a home adjacent to the parking lot, to plan to tear it down and create an alley entrance from Elliot Avenue that would allow traffic to return to Lake Street without turning around in the Chicago Liquor Store lot.

Hopefully, with the added problems caused by the liquor store, the County will be able to chip in a little more to insure a safe cul de sac.