Waiting on Lowry Av. bridge

Next week, the placement of a million-pound steel girder will once again complete a century-old connection over the Mississippi River between north and northeast Minneapolis. While the Lowry Avenue bridge won't open to traffic until next summer, business owners and city leaders say they look forward to the completion of the $92.7 million county project.

Others, however, worry about re-establishing the neighborhoods' old ties, which have been severed since 2008.

That year, the bridge was closed when engineers determined the shifting supports made it structurally unsound. Since then, business owners on both sides say they've felt the pain.

"The more they tear things up, the worse things get," said Troy Hildebrand, who has operated Troy's Auto Repair on Lowry Avenue N. in north Minneapolis for 21 years. There's been a 30 percent to 40 percent drop in the customers that come through his door, Hildebrand said, a situation made worse by the closure of the Plymouth Avenue bridge one year ago.

Across the river, Robert Marget, owner of River Liquor Store on Lowry Avenue NE., said sales have been down about 35 percent since the bridge closed. He also has had to cut staff.

"We had a lot of customers who lived just over the bridge" who don't show up any more, Marget said. "For an extra 20 minutes to come here, I don't blame them."

Minneapolis City Council President Barbara Johnson, whose ward includes North Side neighborhoods, said it's "been a cross to bear for north and northeast to have all of these bridges out."

The new bridge will feature a pair of overhead arches, two lanes in each direction, separated by a median, as well as bike and pedestrian paths on both sides.

Next Wednesday, river traffic will come to a standstill to allow for a girder to be put in place on the southern edge of the bridge, said Paul Backer, project engineer with Hennepin County. Starting this winter, crews will erect the arches and cables for the bridge, he said.

Council Member Kevin Reich said that residents in his northeast ward have voiced concern about the increased traffic that will surely come with the bridge completion.

"I think there's going to be an existential sense that, 'My goodness. There's a lot more activity,'" he said.

But, Reich said, he thought the traffic won't be much different from when the bridge was previously open. Reich also downplayed some residents' concern about crime increasing once the bridge is back in service.

Minneapolis police Lt. Greg Reinhardt, who used to work in the Second Precinct, which includes Northeast, said property crimes did go down significantly in neighborhoods close to the bridge during the previous shutdown. But the number of crimes was low to begin with, Reinhardt said.

"If you cut off patterns in traffic, patterns in crime change," he said.

Business owners are ready for those traffic patterns to return to normal.

Tony Xiong, owner of the Bangkok Market grocery and video rental store in north Minneapolis, said he has written several letters to the city pushing it to get the bridge finished, even though it's a county project.

"We're waiting for it."