Hip hip hooray for the Greenway

BY DENNIS GEISINGER

The last phase of the $1.3 million RiverLake Greenway Bicycle Project that will connect Lake Harriet to the Mississippi River is now fully funded and project organizers are seeking additional community input in order to finalize plan details. Once completed, the on-street facility will run along redesigned roadways of 40th St. (west of Nokomis Ave.) and along 42nd Street (east of Nokomis Avenue).

Costs for the new bike route will be covered by $1,070,000 in Federal Highway Administration funds secured by the Metropolitan Council and an additional $267,500 set aside by the City. Monies will be used for traffic calming, landscaping and streetscapes with construction anticipated to begin in 2010.
The Kingfield Neighborhood portion of the project was completed in 2003 and the East Harriet-Farmstead portion in 2004. Final planning now underway for the portion east of 35W has the Minneapolis Public Works Department. conducting meetings with residents of the Bryant, Bancroft, Standish-Ericsson and Longfellow communities to discuss its design. The first of these final planning meetings was held the evening of Jan. 10 at Roosevelt High.

Participants discussed the creation of a community advisory committee for the project, the process for the project’s final planning and design and opportunities and challenges anticipated along its route (parking, traffic calming, one-ways, and potential sites for trees, greening, and rain gardens). The final piece of the greenway will stretch between Hiawatha Avenue and the Mississippi River.
“There’s still a lot of uncertainty as far as what the scope of the project really is,” said Donald Pflaum, transportation engineer for Minneapolis Public Works and the greenway project’s prime mover since its inception. Pflaum recently turned over his responsibilities to City engineer Stephanie Malmberg.

Leaders for the project and Southside residents have a long history of making plans for the greenway project, the original idea coming out of the Kingfield neighborhood in the late 90s. In February 2004, Longfellow residents expressed a number of concerns about parking and safety for bikers along their part of the route, according to Minneapolis City Council member Sandy Colvin Roy (DFL-Ward 12). Planners subsequently examined the possibility of moving the Hiawatha crossing point from the 42nd Street intersection down to the Minnehaha Parkway bridge and put together plan modifications to the address parking concerns.

Improvements were eventually brokered for better biker safety on 42nd Street and the preservation of on-street parking for the people who need it. Plans were also included for a sign at the 42nd Street and Hiawatha crossing to direct those who wished to choose an easier, safer crossing (like families with kids in tow) toward the parkway bridge over the highway and LRT. Bike commuters spoke up in favor of keeping the crossing at 42nd because it is a more direct route.
A random sample survey done by the Standish-Ericsson Neighborhood Association in 2002 found residents ranking transit plans that contained provisions for pedestrians and bicyclists as 4th out of 50 for proposed non-housing strategies. The following year, 18.7 percent of respondents chose the development of pedestrian/bicycle friendly routes as their top transportation concern.

At least initially, taxpayers will have to pick up increased maintenance costs for the bikeway, which according to City projections, will run about $26,400 a year. Minneapolis Public Works will use its budget to cover annual restriping, sweeping, and snow removal. Reportedly, the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee and the State Bicycle Advisory Committee are studying ways to generate funding for bicycle infrastructure maintenance from which cities and counties could benefit. Examples include bicycle registration fees, a state sales tax on all bicycle goods and services, advertising on trails, corporate sponsorships, selling trail naming rights, and trail user fees.