Midtown Greenway Users Petition Minneapolis To Redo 'Crappy' Job
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- More than 1,000 people have signed an online petition to get the city of Minneapolis to re-pave an already re-paved trail.
A couple of weeks ago, the city completed the 2.6 mile resurfacing of the Midtown Greenway. The trail is a signature corridor that runs through the entire city. However, after a half-million-dollar re-pavement project between Burnham Trail and 5th Avenue South, trail users want the city to redo the job.
"As soon as I rode it for the first time, I knew something was wrong." said Steve Brandt. "You get a lot of vibration, edges aren't all the way to the side of the trail."
Brandt rides about 2,300 miles a year and uses the Midtown Greenway weekly.
"Some cyclists are choosing to pedal in the pedestrian lane because in some cases it's smoother," said Midtown Greenway Coalition Executive Director Soren Jensen. "That's an accident waiting to happen, obviously there's cracks and gaps. It's a liability issue for the city of Minneapolis. They need to take this seriously."
Jensen is calling public works to admit they've made a mistake and to commit to a high-quality trail.
Don Elwood, the director of transportation engineering design for Minneapolis Public Works, admits some areas of the trail did not meet expectations. The department plans to reevaluate the trail in the spring. Elwood said the team will come up with the best solution.
"Now that we're coming into winter, the first thing is to pause. We don't want to make a situation worse than we have now," Elwood said. "Next spring we'll take evaluation and determine how best to address it."
Elwood explained that initially the city was going to use the mill-and-overlay method to repave the trail, but during investigation they opted for a more cost-effective method called micro paving.
"The intent was to take out the gaps and bumps from roots and pavement distress, fix those and then come in over top with brand-new surface," Elwood said.
Trail users say the city should have gone with the mill-and-overlay option.
"Unfortunately, they chose a different technique and we got a substandard surface I call crappy, to use in technical term," Brandt said.
According to the city of Minneapolis 2021 adopted budget, the cost for mill and overlay would have been $1.6 million. Public works only used $500,000 for the micro paving method.