It's deserving of a golden spike--or maybe a golden kickstand.
Sometime in November the nation's
first bicycle freeway is due to reach the Mississippi River from the west, through the difficult terrain of downtown Minneapolis. The Minneapolis City Council voted July 2 to fund completion of
Phase III of the Cedar Lake Trail, at a
reported cost of at least $9.2 million for a single mile. Work begins this month.
Rather than do battle with motor vehicles on surface roads, bicyclists will be able to follow the final leg of the trail along a semi-subterranean path. They'll travel in a railroad trench, alongside tracks carrying freight and commuter trains, from downtown's near-north outskirts through the Warehouse District to West River Parkway.
If other sections of the Cedar Lake Trail look something like an interstate freeway cutting across wild, open land, Phase III will have the feel of an inner-city freeway slicing through the urban core, Renderings by engineering firm URS show a paved bike roadway running next to sheer embankment walls and under long sections of elevated highway, all the while enclosed by chain link fence. (See
PDF.)
At the trail's new end, riders will emerge into more bucolic surroundings, descending a ramp through the Federal Reserve Bank's private wildflower garden to the serpentine river road, just upstream from the Hennepin Avenue Bridge.
As a trailhead for commuters planning to pedal westward home, the new east entrance will be much easier to find than the trail's current starting point beneath the Royalston Avenue overpass.
Don Pflaum, city transportation planner, says other access points in the new section will be at Washington Avenue and Target Field.
Source: Don Pflaum
Writer: Chris Steller