It is my understanding that the cities can't agree for the same reason
they couldn't agree over three decades ago when they started construction:
neither city wants to tear down houses and businesses. Neither city wanted
to do that when I-35W was first proposed. The original design had I-35W
gently curving to the southwest at its junction with the Crosstown. But
such a diagonal route would mean more right-of-way needed than the straight
north-south routes Richfield and Minneapolis wanted. Minneapolis wouldn't
move I-35W west, Richfield wouldn't move it east, so it was duplexed with
the Crosstown. Selah.
To fix this interchange properly would necessitate a few things. The
first option would be to bite the bullet and do what engineers wanted to do
in the first place: bend I-35W so it doesn't share a road with 62. Of
course, that would mean tearing down neighborhoods again. We could build a
new I-35W above 62, stacking the freeway like they do in California. But
that would be ugly and expensive. Or you could bury the freeway like they
are doing in downtown Boston. That would take several presidential cycles,
based on how long it is taking at the Big Dig. Besides, changing the
project would mean going through the process again: planning, environmental
impact statements, the whole mess.
Regarding building our way out of congestion: of course we could do it.
Just look at the above options. The question is whether we want to do this.
I don't. I commute 20 minutes down University Avenue; no problem here. If
highway projects to the outlying 'burbs were financed by those 'burbs -- for
example, if Eden Prairie, Chanhassen, and Chaska were the ones paying for
the 212 expansion -- I wouldn't care as much. But I don't need 212 or 610.
I have seen what is happening to Brooklyn Park with the new 610. Where
there was nothing a few years ago, now there are bright gas stations all
over the place, along with housing developments that look like mushrooms
sprouting up on a farm. Ugly, ugly, ugly.
Regarding light rail along I-35W: if I remember correctly, this was the
original alignment. It would sure make a lot more sense than running the
line from a place where few live through a place where people just travel
through to end in a place where nobody lives. I will spare the PRT rant for
now.
===
Nathan Hunstad
Marcy-Holmes
Minneapolis, MN
(612) 331-7766 -- Home (612) 598-6484 -- Wireless
"Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it's not as hard . . . hard . . . hard as it seems"
--Led Zeppelin
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