Downtown construction gives Rochester the chance to expand walking, bike paths

ROCHESTER – An upcoming street project could bring Minnesota’s third-largest city closer to a years-long goal: to connect all of downtown Rochester with major pedestrian and biking corridors.

Rochester officials are using the Mayo Clinic downtown expansion to reconsider how people get around downtown, as construction will close off access to a handful of streets.

With reconstruction along 6th Avenue W., the city has a new opportunity to expand pedestrian and bicycle access from north to south, and the chance to create another major biking path along or near the main downtown thoroughfare, Broadway Avenue S.

City officials are seeking public input on the best ways to make those paths happen. Rochester began hosting open houses this week to solicit ideas and will meet with residents over the next two months as the city works with a design firm on potential projects.

Mike Collins, a project manager with the city of Rochester, said 6th Avenue W. is among several ideal routes for a north-south connection.

“It’s not necessarily a downtown urban street,” Collins said. “It’s not necessarily a neighborhood street. This is one of those streets that’s kind of in the middle, and so that’s part of the reason why we want feedback.”

At the same time, Rochester could look at making Broadway Avenue or nearby 1st Avenue SE. more accessible to pedestrians. City officials say they’ve spoken with business owners along Broadway who aren’t opposed to narrowing the avenue to expand walk/bike paths, as long as it brings more foot traffic to the area.

City officials and Destination Medical Center (DMC) have focused on pedestrian and bicycling access in downtown in recent years, including a renovation of 2nd Avenue SW. from Soldiers Field Memorial Park to the Mayo campus.

But local leaders have dreamed of better walking and biking downtown since the start of DMC construction.

“Rochester is growing, and people need to get through and around the downtown,” said Councilmember Nick Miller. “What we’ve seen is unless we provide other options than people driving themselves, we quickly run out of space.”

Miller noted that downtown bike traffic rose about 20% after the city painted bike lanes on several major streets, though there’s not enough data to show whether the bike traffic has continued to grow.

Patrick Seeb, executive director of DMC, said the group dedicated to transforming downtown Rochester into an international medical hub will likely financially support some version of a downtown connection project.

“For each of the stations along the way, we are being intentional about thinking how do we improve” access, Seeb said.

Several residents advocated for protected bike lanes during open houses on Thursday. Other ideas ranged from scrapping bike lanes altogether on 6th Avenue W. to adding onto the 2nd Avenue S. trail through the Mayo campus and up past downtown, which biking advocates say is a preferred route.

Fewer intersections, replacing stop lights with stop signs and elevated pathways were all suggested, and some sought assurances the city would take their feedback seriously.