Lining things up at the 35W bridge, and a word about Hwy. 252
Posted on July 13th, 2008 – 10:48 PMBy Roadguy
Here’s my column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve already read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.
THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE
Alert reader John was checking out the new Interstate 35W bridge last weekend when he saw something he didn’t expect:
It looked to me like the east side was about 1 to 1 1/2 feet lower that the west side. … Is that just an optical illusion, or is there really a discrepancy in elevation between the two sides? If it’s real, how do they take care of it?
John’s eyes were perceptive, if not perfectly so (something online readers have discussed in this post, which includes a photo). The roadways that protrude a couple of hundred feet from each bank did not in fact line up vertically — the difference was 7 to 9 inches, says Kevin Gutknecht of the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
It would be more entertaining if this had come as a total surprise — “You moron! Next time use a calculator!” — but engineers anticipated the discrepancy. It was the result of a few million pounds of scaffolding beams weighing down the portion of the bridge over West River Parkway. The downward force there pushed up the part of the bridge over the river, something like a seesaw.
The beams have since been removed, Gutknecht said, and now the downtown side “is about where it needs to be.”
As for the horizontal gap — there’s a 7-foot space between the two sides — it’ll be filled with concrete this coming week.
FAVORING A FREEWAY
Minnesota is dotted with expressways — divided highways that let you travel at freeway speeds but that have at-grade intersections. They are relatively easy to drive on, but there’s almost nothing more demoralizing than going from a full-fledged freeway to a stop-and-go expressway, as alert reader Pete from Coon Rapids can attest:
I am wondering about any future plans to improve Hwy. 252 in the northern suburbs. There are simply too many stoplights on this small stretch of highway. The traffic comes to a stop going north every afternoon. … The same goes for the southbound trip in the mornings.
I wish I could tell Pete that MnDOT has decided to grant his wishes as, say, a Christmas gift, but unfortunately it would be something like Christmas 2024 at the earliest — and that’s if the funding picture doesn’t worsen.
Although the freeway conversion is on the books for the 2024-2030 time frame, Chris Roy, MnDOT’s manager for the north metro, says the agency is studying smaller, more immediate fixes, such as intersection improvements or changes to signal timing.
A final tidbit: “Expressway” means different things in different places; Chicago’s expressways, for example, are really just freeways - ones that make Hwy. 252 look like commuter heaven.
7 Responses to "Lining things up at the 35W bridge, and a word about Hwy. 252"
252 is yet another example of why municipal consent is a bad idea. Just like 169 in Eden Prairie/Bloomington Mn/DOT wanted to build it as a freeway but the cities wanted it built as a expressway. As a result people have been killed at the intersections, countless hours have been wasted in traffic, and now the cities want it fixed, which will be a lot more expensive than doing it right in the first place.
On an unrelated note, a big thank you to MNDOT and the city of Minneapolis for both closing 35W this weekend AND holding a triathalon by the lakes and Minnehaha parkway, shutting off every through street in south Minneapolis from France to Portland.
Oh, nah, Nicollet was open. It only took me 85 minutes to get across the freeway, get over the parkway, back across the freeway, ending up 6 blocks from where I started.
If it weren’t for certain circumstances, I would have just ran across the parkway on foot and swam across the creek when the patrols weren’t looking. Would have been much faster and more fun, too!
Living on Diamond Lake, is getting to be really painful.
No 46th St bridge
No 50th St bridge.
No 60th St. Looks like a storm sewer project - you can’t go under 35W for what seems to be months.
No 76th St bridge.
Lyndale ave closed between 50th and 44th.
Portland one lane, near 66th St.
35W closed for the weekend.
Then Park / Portland / Chicago / Bloomington / Cedar all closed for most of Saturday.
This is true planning / management / coordination at it’s best.
I had to laugh at all the idiots that didn’t believe the road closed signs apply to them. I can see the intersection of 60th and 35W from my house. I can’t count the number of people who drove up to it, then did a u-turn and went back to Portland. Yes, dummy, the road really is closed. Duh!
Just wanted to agree with Monte. 252 will now remain a disaster for decades, and 252 has had its deaths as well. There was a pedestrian bridge built because a little girl was killed trying to cross the expressway.
Curmudgeon Geographer says: “Just wanted to agree with Monte. 252 will now remain a disaster for decades, ”
How long has it taken to fix Highway 36? 30 yrs? 40 yrs?
Back east, they fixed these kind of roads in the early 70’s. I think this stuff still going on, makes MN part of the ‘fly over country’.
I have a client in Victoria, and once in a while I have to go out Highway 5. It’s the same thing: a 50 mph road, with stop lights every mile or so. All built up with fast food, banks, retail, apartment complexes. It’s sure to grow more. Minnesota is still building roads like this - they just don’t get it.
