It’s not every day that Met Council President Charlie Zelle steps away from his desk in the middle of a workday to go on a 5-mile bike ride, but last Tuesday was a special occasion.
Zelle and Jim Alexander, project director for the Green Line Extension, led a public bike ride to officially reopen the Cedar Lake LRT Regional Trail and highlight progress being made on the light-rail line that will connect downtown Minneapolis with Eden Prairie starting in 2027.
“This is a celebration to open trails that have been closed since 2019, and experience it with the people,” Alexander said following the ride that started behind the Greenway Lakes Commons mall on Lake Street in Minneapolis and ended in downtown Hopkins.
Bill Regan, of south Minneapolis, was one of about 50 cyclists who joined the ride and was happy to have the paved trail — which follows the former railroad lines of the Great Northern Railway and the Minneapolis and St. Louis Railway — back open.
“Before construction, this was one of my favorite routes to bike,” he said. “Now that it is open, it’s even better with smoother trails and safer crossings. I am excited to ride on it.”
The rebuilt trail includes a bridge carrying bicyclists over Beltline Boulevard in St. Louis Park and tunnels at Wooddale and Louisiana avenues and Blake Road. The additions allow cyclists to cross the busy streets without having to mingle with traffic.
“The tunnels are a big improvement,” said Chris Nelson, administrator of the SWLRT Trail Status Facebook group, who also joined the ride. Before tunnels were put in, Nelson said, cyclists at busy Blake Road were forced to play a human version of the video game Frogger while crossing the five-lane thoroughfare. “No two people did it the same. I’m happy with the final project.”
Zelle, too, said he was pleased, calling the details from the seamless connections leading to park-and-ride lots to zig-zagging sidewalks at stations designed to get people to look both ways “impressive.”
