Minneapolis has a new winner for most expensive bike-walk trail in the city.
Supporters say the $3 million trail and tunnel being built beneath two major bridges is a crucial connection between the University of Minnesota and downtown.
At less than one-fourth of a mile long, the Bluff Street Bike Trail project works out to a per-mile rate of more than $12 million, easily eclipsing the $9.2 million the city paid for the final mile of the Cedar Lake Trail through the North Loop, which opened in 2011.
The Midtown Greenway averaged about $6.5 million per mile, including its signature bridge. In comparison, the city's average project cost per mile of street reconstruction this year is roughly $8.5 million.
City Council Member Cam Gordon, whose ward includes part of the trail, admitted he swallowed hard at the cost but voted for it, saying the expense should be viewed in the context of it completing a key link in a larger network of bike-walk connections in the area.
But a 2013 mayoral candidate who has been critical of how the city prioritizes said the cost is another example of its misplaced priorities.
"I hope the City Council has the guts to go and look the young minority child in the eye whose neighborhood isn't safe because we can't afford enough police patrols," said Cam Winton, an attorney.
The trail, which is less than 400 yards long, runs under the west ends of the 10th Avenue and Interstate 35W bridges, just below and east of the U Law School and the nearby Riverview Towers condo building.