The new Light Rail along Central Corridor, set to be finished in 2014, is not only going to change traffic on Washington Avenue.

Other busy traffic areas around the Twin Cities are preparing to handle displaced traffic from this project. One such area is the Franklin Avenue, East River Parkway and 27th Street Intersection.

With traffic congestion already an issue, the intersection is projected to handle a large amount of the displaced cars that in the past would have taken the Central Corridor route. Cross-river traffic, especially related to pedestrians, is also becoming a recurring problem.

Monday, August 25 marked the final community open house to discuss the pending changes to the intersection in anticipation of these increased traffic flows.

“We’re willing to try to make things more manageable for everyone,” Jim Grube, Project Manager, said in a presentation to community members. “We want to set it up as efficiently as possible before the Central Corridor opens. There should be no substantial change to the intersection in anticipation of that traffic.”

The current plan, now being presented to the Minneapolis City Council and Hennepin County Board of Commissioners, will not reconstruct the intersection. Rather, it will install new timing signals in the stoplights, allowing more time for the streets with heaviest traffic flow to pass through the intersection, especially pedestrian foot traffic.

Grube said that by installing the traffic signal now, the committee can attempt to experience Central Corridor changes before construction is underway. Anticipating the problem should make the 2014 transition run more efficiently.

The ultimate goal will be to reduce traffic waiting time at all points of the intersection. This especially applies to the busier areas coming from West Franklin Avenue and cars waiting on the Franklin Avenue bridge to get to the West side of the river.

Pedestrian concerns were a significant consideration in the planning. One of the purposes of the new timing system is to lengthen pedestrian walking times to get more foot traffic across the intersection during the peak times of the day.

“What we’re really trying to do is fix this issue across the bridge…for pedestrians,” Study Consultant Jeff Rhoda said to community members.

As it is, traffic coming from Franklin Avenue onto the bridge will receive the highest volume of signal time to allow for the fact that it has the most traffic. The 27th Avenue crossing will receive the least stoplight time.

The hope is that even if the overflow traffic from the Central Corridor hits the projected amount, waiting time at all stops of the intersection will not exceed 103 seconds, less than the current maximum wait time of 120 seconds. Further information on actual times will come in 2014 when the actual displacement of traffic is known.

When asked why a solution involving construction was not being taken, Grube cited a “less is more” philosophy.

“Do you manage to make a substantial capital investment on a prediction? Or do you try something else, wait and see what happens?” Grube said.

Should the change in traffic signals prove not to be enough to handle overflow traffic from the light rail, there are three other possible options involving reconstruction that were presented at the meeting as well.

The first option involves making the current five-way intersection into a four-way intersection; another turns the intersection into a roundabout; and the third option creates a pedestrian tunnel under Franklin Avenue to displace foot traffic. A pedestrian bridge over Franklin Avenue was also considered but is not a legal option.

Grube finished his presentation with a message of continuity on the project.

“We’ll give it a year after the light rail opens to settle down, and then we’ll take a look at things. What do we have? If it’s manageable, then our less is more strategy is better. If it’s a real safety problem, we have to answer that at that time,” Grube said.

To see the option presented at an earlier open house download the PowerPoint presentation, which includes the various proposals).

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last revised: September 17, 2009

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