Hyperlocal news

[magenta]

 

Franklin Avenue will be closed starting March 16. The way I know is that there is a sign on Franklin just west of Park, where a lot of people turn to go to 35W. Otherwise I would not know. I live just north of Franklin and I have no idea how I will go anywhere after that, whether any of the cross streets will be open, for example. There is a Hennepin County website but it says very little that is helpful, just that Nicollet and First Ave will remain open. The Metro Transit website shows the #2 bus, one of the major east-west routes, no longer runs between Lyndale and Chicago as of March 15th. No idea where people who live between the stops listed will use the bus. Also not clear what will happen to other routes that go on Franklin for a short distance, the #9 and #14. Will 3rd Ave be open, so that the #11 bus will continue to run? There is nothing on the Park Nicolet Blasidell Clinic website on what will happen to clinic access when Franklin is closed - the only way to get there is turn from Franklin on to Blasidell, which is one way going south.

 

As I understand it, when done, Franklin will be one lane in each direction, plus a turn lane. Right now, both lanes are bumper to bumper for several blocks during rush hour to and from the freeway. Going to one lane in each direction will make that worse. The project is going to create more traffic by the 35W/94 entrance.

There is little or no information for people in the area, And having no bus service for more than a mile and a half, for a year and a half,  is reprehensible,

I yes, I know this was in the planning stages. I took a survey and said I thought it was a bad idea. But Hennepin does not seem to care about people in this neighborhood.

Comments

[dreamshark]

Oh no! Have you heard any more about this? Exactly what stretch of Franklin will be closed? I particularly want to know how to get to the Blaisell Clinic, which is where we get a lot of our health care.

The model of one lane each direction with turn lanes actually worked really well on Lyndale. I expected that rush hour traffic would be more backed up after the change, but the reverse turned out to be true because most of the holdups were from people trying to make left turns. While I have very little faith in the competence of the traffic engineers that Minneapolis has been using after what they did to Bryant Avenue, it is possible that it won't be a disaster.

[minnehaha]

I suppose they will re-route the buses.

I'm currently in a pocket of the city where the main access was destroyed by construction a week or more ago, and will not reopen until NOVEMBER. Going ANYWHERE means major planning, checking maps, checking traffic cams and crossing fingers.

K.