Subject: A proposed bicycle bridge over the Missisppi River.

Something that struck me about the current plan for the LRT University Ave extension is that it was, for the most part planned before the Ford Plant closing was announced last year. This is relavent over the long term because there is less than a mile between the 26th Street rail line and the Ford Plant. This is relavent because the Ford Plant has a railroad line that basically runs to the St. Paul Union depot in St. Paul. As far as I can tell the Ford Plant is about the only user of this line. The high bridge power plant is switching from coal to natural gas. Besides, by the downtown St. Paul there are multiple tracks so a couple could be dedicated to light rail. I did some calculations and "light rail" has an "axle weight" that is around one-fifth of "heavy rail", say a fully loaded grain hopper car. The bridge over the Mississippi that the 26 Street rail uses might need to be replaiced but the "footings" seem solid, they are out of the water, at least on the St. Paul side. A single steel pan on the existing base would not be difficult to engineer or custruction. This could be wide enough for bike and walking lanes. The total maximum load is a fraction of what now can happen with a heavy rail train with a string of fully loaded railcars.
For the Ford Plant site this would be great advantage because it would give the site light rail to both downtowns. As for bicycling now the 26th Street/Midtown bikeway, when not blocked by construction gives a flat run from the Mississippi River to the Lake Calhoun area. I've bicycled along Minnehaha Creek and it is "hilly". Once you get to the St. Paul side of the Missisippi it is "very hilly" to the South. The logical bicycle destination in St. Paul is now the U of MN. It's just as flat if you bicycle the frontage streets on the Minneapolis side and cross at the Frankin Avenue Bridge, which has bicycle lanes.
The point here is that 26th Street bikeway users can now get to the U of MN with very few hills and not much traffic. It seems best to wait a few years to build a cross-river bridge just for bicycles and pedestrians.
On other news, at 38th and Hiawatha there has been a huge crane base unit parked at the Purina Mill for the last three weeks. With the right rigging it could easily demolish the closed 38th Street Purina Mill.
At the Bunge grain elevator in "Dinkeytown" they demolished two of the three tower "wings". The main tower remains and the one remaining "wing is three tubes wide. This could concievably be turned into "housing" because the center tube could contain hallways and "ulitilits" like kitchens, bathrooms and laundry outlets for the individual units along with storage.
I've been riding the light rail a lot more the last few weeks. I've noticed a far higher police and rail cop presence at night (so buy your ticket!) One rail cop said that they were hiring ten new rail cops just for the LRT. It's sort of self funding since the non-payment tickets are $180. I think it's a good move.
I will also post these comments are my http://lrtrider.com eamil me at g@65y.com if you want something posted at http://lrtrider.com It's sort of a "backburner" for now.







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