Committee approves municipal consent for University Avenue NE improvements amid coordination concerns

The Minneapolis City Climate and Infrastructure Committee on Oct. 16 approved municipal consent for the Minnesota Department of Transportation(MnDOT) University Avenue Northeast Improvement Project, voting 4-1. Council Member Rainville cast the lone no vote; Council Members Chavez, Vito, Vice Chair Koski and Chair Katie Cashman voted aye.

The vote followed questions from council members about how the city and its project partners will coordinate construction timing for multiple near-term street projects in Northeast Minneapolis. Council Member Rainville said overlapping projects on Central Avenue, University Avenue and Marshall Avenue could "cripple the traffic patterns," and asked staff to spell out a plan. Peter Bennett, transportation planner with Minneapolis Public Works, said project teams from the three corridors are coordinating but that phasing has not yet been finalized.

MnDOT staff described a value-engineering study to be conducted this winter to analyze traffic modes and help develop a phasing plan intended to minimize community impacts. "A value engineering study would just essentially take all of the MnDOT functional groups ... along with working with the city of Minneapolis and Hennepin County to look at all of our projects," MnDOT staff member Christina Perfetti said.

Jenny Hager, interim deputy director and city engineer for Minneapolis Public Works, told the committee the city is forming an internal work group led by Traffic and Parking Services to bring project representatives together to map timing, staging and traffic control and to include construction limits in bid packages so contractors are aware of staging constraints. "We're going to be doing this now in the hopes that we can build in some of these requirements and expectations into bid packages and specifications for these projects as they go out to bid," Hager said.

Rainville said she remained concerned about the projected impacts in her ward and declined to support the municipal consent motion, saying, "I'm not going to vote this. I just think you should have done this a long time ago." Other council members pressed staff for regular briefings; Hager said the city will ask partners to follow protocols similar to recent corridor projects, including weekly construction briefings for businesses, residents and council offices.

Council Member Chavez moved the consent; no second was recorded in the public transcript. The clerk called the roll: Rainville voted no; Vito, Chavez, Koski and Chair Cashman voted aye. The motion carried with four ayes and one no; Council Member Osmond was absent.

Staff emphasized that design and staging details remain subject to final design and coordination with MnDOT and Hennepin County. Committee members asked staff to return with more specific timelines and to involve affected council offices and business outreach as plans move into final design and construction contracting.

The committee also noted that the public hearing had been opened at a prior meeting and continued to Oct. 16; no additional members of the public signed up to speak at this session.