‘Horrid, busy and loud’: Road construction snarls traffic at the U, and the worst is yet to come

Surrounded by cones and barrels on either side, motorists on a recent Monday crept along block by block as they made their way past athletic facilities at the University of Minnesota and through the heart of Dinkytown.

A major construction project that has SE. 4th Street, a one-way thoroughfare, reduced to a single, narrow lane between Oak Street and Interstate 35W. The Hennepin County-led project combined with the city of Minneapolis’ road work in the vicinity has choked traffic for the past three months and created headaches for anybody traveling through campus.

“Horrid, busy and loud,” is how Sandra Cullen, assistant director of the U’s parking and transportation services, describes the scene. “People with meetings were saying they were not coming in anymore.”

Staying away from the U is the simple solution to avoid the snarls, poised to become worse in the coming weeks before the project winds up later this fall.

Thousands more vehicles will descend on campus to park and catch shuttle buses to the State Fair starting Aug. 22. Another huge traffic generator: the Gophers’ football home opener on Aug. 29 at Huntington Bank Stadium. And students and faculty also will begin returning to campus to start the new academic year.

“Bring your patience,” Cullen said.

Hennepin County is rebuilding SE. 4th Street by putting down new pavement, protected bike lanes, new intersections that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, modernized traffic signals and new bus stops for the E Line, the new bus rapid transit line that will run from Edina to the U starting in 2025.

If there is any comfort, getting to the U won’t be much of a hassle, Cullen said, since University Avenue, a one-way flowing into the heart of campus, still has all three of its lanes available. Drivers can also come in off the Interstate 94 and Huron Boulevard exit.

Event traffic is more spaced out as not everybody arrives at the same time, Cullen said. But she’s still encouraging people to come early and, more importantly, stay late.

It’s getting off campus where drivers will feel the traffic pain as SE. 4th Street is a one-way primarily carrying traffic away from campus and to I-35W and prone to traffic jams.

Cullen’s advice? “Don’t leave at the same time. Find something to do and be patient.”

Or avoid SE. 4th Street altogether and take a different route to get home. Those parking in the 4th Street Ramp can go right onto 17th Avenue to Pillsbury Drive, then right onto Pleasant Street and cross the Washington Avenue bridge to access I-35W. Drivers can also sneak north up 15th Avenue to Como Avenue, then right to reach Hwy. 280, which will take them to I-35W or I-94.

“We’re working with the University of Minnesota and attractions to mitigate traffic impacts during events,” said Tony Schrempp, construction division manager for Hennepin County. That could include employing traffic control agents.

The goal, he added, is to have at least two lanes open on event days. Schrempp also emphasized that visitors need to allow extra time and pay attention to signs indicating lane and road closures.

County-led projects don’t always get the attention that large-scale projects such as those carried out by the Minnesota Department of Transportation do, but they are often as equally or even more complex and take longer, Schrempp said. The work is done on urban roads with many more access points — driveways, alleys, parking lots and streets — and in tight quarters.

“Traffic needs to be maintained,” Schrempp said, and so does access for pedestrians and bicyclists. That’s why 4th Street is being done one side at a time.

Not far away in northeast Minneapolis, another county project has led to bottlenecks on 1st Avenue NE. and E. Hennepin Avenue, and streets feeding into them.

Back at the U, this year’s construction is a preview of what’s to come in 2025. That is when University Avenue will be rebuilt at the same time MnDOT is planning bridge preservation work on I-94 between Franklin Avenue and Hwy. 55/I-35 in Minneapolis.