Plan for new bridge across Mississippi is put on hold

By Steve Brandt, Star Tribune

Last update: June 27, 2007 - 8:46 PM

Hennepin County is dropping for now its plans for a costly and controversial bridge that would have carried the Midtown Greenway across the Mississippi River.

"We're going to pull the plug on the thing," said Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin. "I think it's going to have to ripen a bit."

Intended for pedestrians and bikers, the bridge would have been the first new Mississippi crossing in Minneapolis in 40 years. The county hoped to build it about 300 feet south of the Short Line Railroad bridge, which is north of the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue Bridge.

But residents along the river were divided on the plan. The 1,400-member Friends of the Mississippi advocacy group began to lobby commissioners against the bridge this month.

McLaughlin said reasons for dropping the proposal include rising cost estimates, missing out on a key grant, and the lack of a ready continuation route east through St. Paul.

He said that Canadian Pacific Railway, owner of the Short Line bridge, doesn't want to give the greenway an easement to share that bridge. County engineering consultants are dubious about the long-term structural stability of it. The railroad hasn't returned phone calls.

But Tim Springer, director of the Midtown Greenway Coalition, said it's inevitable that there will be a crossing, even if it takes time for the solution to emerge.

The county had lined up $3 million in federal funds for a bridge that was estimated to cost roughly $10 million to $12 million. But it failed in a recent application for another $3.5 million in federal money.

Whitney Clark, executive director of Friends of the Mississippi, wants the county to try harder for an agreement with the railroad. "We don't think they have energetically pursued that option," he said.

Clark said if that doesn't work, it's not asking much of bikers or walkers to use the Lake Street or Franklin Avenue bridges.

The proposed bridge was likely to encounter significant review from federal agencies, especially because it would add a new crossing within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, a 72-mile corridor through the Twin Cities. The National Park Service had expressed strong reservations about a new bridge.

Steve Brandt • 612-673-4438 • sbrandt@startribune.com

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