Midtown Greenway
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| Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Grade Separation | |
|---|---|
| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | Minneapolis, Minnesota |
| Built/Founded: | 1912 |
| Architect: | Loweth, Charles Fredrick; Lothholz, H.C. |
| Architectural style(s): | No Style Listed |
| Added to NRHP: | June 01, 2005 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 05000508[1][2] |
| MPS: | Reinforced-Concrete Highway Bridges in Minnesota MPS |
| Governing body: | County, others[3] |
The Midtown Greenway is a rail trail in Minnesota. It is considered under segregated cycle facilities.
It is a 5.7 mile bicycle and pedestrian recreational trail and important bicycle commuter route running east-west in Minneapolis, running about one block north of Lake Street, which it parallels for most of its length.
The partially below-grade greenway follows a former Milwaukee Road railroad corridor along 29th Street. This corridor is abandoned west of Hiawatha Avenue but is still active east of this street as part of the Minnesota Commercial Railway, forcing the trail to pass parallel to the railroad line.
On the west end, the trail connects to the Southwest LRT Trail, so named because it runs along the Metro Transit (Minnesota)light rail corridor, called the Southwest Corridor), which connects to St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie.
On the east end, the trail connects to the West River Parkway trail, which runs along the Mississippi River and is a part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. It provides cyclists, in-line skaters, runners, and pedestrians a traffic-free route across the city. Together with other bike trails, it offers Minneapolis-area cyclists a choice of several loop rides, and it serves bicycle commuters from the western suburbs riding to the University of Minnesota
In between (moving from west to east), it connects to the Kenilworth Trail (which in turn connects to the Cedar Lake Trail). East of the Kenilworth Trail junction, trail users can access Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles, also a part of the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway. Immediately east of Hiawatha Avenue, the Midtown Greenway connects to the Light Rail Trail, a 1.7 bike path that carries cyclists to the east side of downtown.
The trail features two one-way bike lane and one two-way walking path (though they are combined in some places with restricted space). It is also lined with various community gardens.
The Greenway starts at 31st Street and Chowen Avenue on the west side of Minneapolis and has been built in four phases to reach its current eastern endpoint at the Mississippi River. In November 2007, Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis officially opened the fourth phase, a spectacular cable-stayed bridge which eliminates a hazardous grade crossing of busy Hiawatha Avenue. The Martin Olav Sabo Bridge brings foot and bike traffic north and over both the multi-lane roadway and the Light Rail line before turning south again to the Greenway.
The fifth phase, which has an unknown date of completion, would carry cyclists across the Mississippi River. Planners have hoped to continue across the river to the city of Saint Paul via the Short Line Bridge in the future, though the Canadian Pacific Railway (the successor to the Milwaukee Road) has not been receptive to the idea. An article in StarTribune (Spring 2007) reported that engineers express concerns about the safety of the bridge, and the particular design of the bridge makes it difficult and expensive to determine if the bridge is structurally sound. Proposals have been floated to built a separate bridge nearby, which would require Federal funds beyond that have already been allocated for this phase.
The Midtown Greenway connects many parts of the cities, including the Midtown Global Market, an international marketplace in the Twin Cities, as well as public parks, such as Brackett Park.
The possibility of using the greenway as a future mass-transit corridor has also been studied, with planners favoring a simple heritage streetcar line initially built using single track in most places.
Half of the Midtown Greenway is located in a trench making it nearly impossible to view it from surrounding neighborhood. This creates special challenges to keeping it safe from crime. Emergency call phones, occasional patrols, and a few security cameras are used in the effort to keep criminal activity down. The city’s main strategy is the hope that if enough pedestrians and cyclists are there it will keep the criminals away. [4]
The trench is the result of a project mandated by the City of Minneapolis in 1910. The Milwaukee Road rail line was originally built between 1879 and 1881 to give the railroad a direct line to wheat fields in western Minnesota. Rail traffic and industrial development increased along the corridor, prompting pressure from local residents to remove the at-grade crossings. The Milwaukee Road constructed a trench and a number of bridges across the tracks between Hiawatha Avenue and Irving Avenue. [5] The trench, bridges, and retaining walls are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railroad Grade Separation. [6]
[edit] References
- ^ Nord, Mary Ann (2003). The National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota. Minnesota Historical Society. ISBN 0-87351-448-3.
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
- ^ About the Greenway. Midtown Greenway Coalition. Retrieved on 2007-12-31.
- ^ Midtown Greenway FAQ
- ^ Bennett Lumber Site Environmental Assessment Worksheet (pdf). City of Minneapolis (2006). Retrieved on 2006-07-06. (page 19)
- ^ National Register of Historic Places Listings - June 10, 2005. National Park Service (2005). Retrieved on 2006-07-06.
[edit] External links
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