I-35W: Final MN Dot Open House

The Minnesota Department of Transportation held its final open house at the Brian Coyle Center, to gather public input about the I-35W Bridge redesign. MNDot has an aggressive timetable. Construction is slated to begin October 15th. MNDot has received a high volume of comments to include mass transit. With much thanks to public input, Deputy Project Manager Terry Ward says, We're allowing the future of transit either in the HOV-type, or the bus rapid transit-type, or the LRT-type to come across the bridge in the future.

The City Council voted on a Statement of Principles on August 17 as part of the state-mandated municipal consent process, which approves a plan for the proposed bridge with five lanes in each direction, including two lanes that could be devoted to Bus Rapid Transit and/or managed lanes. The proposed bridge would follow the same alignment as the previous one but with a width of 189 feet as opposed to the old 113 feet.

This story was submitted by Jacob McKnite on September 12, 2007.