The streets around Riverside Plaza are going to get some much-needed TLC in 2014. 15th Avenue South and 4th Street South are highly used routes that connect bicyclists and pedestrians to the Hiawatha bike trail, the LRT, and the University of Minnesota West Bank, and the roads serve over 4,000 residents who live in the apartment towers. These streets are showing their age and bikers need to dodge potholes while they try to make it safely to their destination. Fortunately, the City of Minneapolis is planning to fully reconstruct the roads in the near future. The project will build off of the recent reconstruction of Riverside Avenue. City officials plan to keep bike lanes on 4th St and to widen 15th Avenue enough to replace bike “sharrows” with full bike lanes.
At their November meeting, the Minneapolis Bicycle Advisory Committee took action to support a bike-friendly redesign of the streets. The BAC wants the bike lanes on 4th Street and 15th Ave to be congruous with the lanes on Riverside Ave. Furthermore, the local community asked the City to add mid-block curb extensions on 15th Avenue that will serve pedestrians crossing the street to Currie Park and the Brian Coyle Community Center. The BAC took action to back this request from the community. In addition, the Committee supports the development of a plaza at the dead-end of 16th St that will be geared toward bicyclists and pedestrians.
Community members who are interested in following the project are encouraged to sign up for email notifications here and to contact the project engineer, Chris Engelman, with any questions.
