St. Paul Public Works Director Kathy Lantry delivered sobering news to city council members regarding improvements on Ayd Mill Road, the dilapidated highway connector that runs diagonally across a large swathe of the capital city.

Costs for proposed improvements, including dropping two of four travel lanes and adding a pedestrian-bicycle trail, have nearly doubled to $9.8 million since last August, and almost tripled compared to the more straightforward repaving project unveiled a year ago.

On Wednesday, Lantry recommended removing only one travel lane, reconfiguring the road to one northbound lane and two southbound lanes. That approach would cut the width of the bike-pedestrian path from 24 feet — even larger than the popular Minneapolis Midtown Greenway in places — down to 12 feet.

“It really came down to cost, and proposing to fund $9.8 million when we had $3.5 million was really the tipping point,” Lantry said. “What we’d like to advance is a three-lane conversion here.”

Council members seemed displeased, with some wondering if the entire repaving project should be delayed a year for further discussion.

“One of the things I’m struck by is how much this plan has changed in the past six months as we’ve thought this through,” said Council Member Rebecca Noecker.

Lantry said the pothole-pockmarked road was at least two years overdue for a mill and overlay repaving.

Others have raised concern about construction costs rising in that time.

“Delaying it for another year, I would not recommend that,” Lantry said. “The road needs to be a surface that would be safe to drive.”

A WINDING BUDGET ROAD

In April 2019, the city council approved a $3.5 million mill and overlay project to repave 1.5 miles of Ayd Mill Road, which stretches from Interstate 35E to Selby Avenue, about five blocks south of Interstate 94.

Mayor Melvin Carter surprised fans and critics alike last August by presenting an even more dramatic option — reducing Ayd Mill to two vehicular lanes this year, one in each direction, and adding a pedestrian-bicycle trail.

The new price tag was estimated at the time to be $5.2 million, with most of the increase attributed to engineering.

On Wednesday, Lantry told the city council that a sharper look at necessary turn lanes at intersections, sewer improvements and standing water issues, traffic signals and other aspects of the plan had raised projected costs to $9.8 million for the full changes.

The budget increases include $1 million for lighting along the bike-pedestrian path and $1.6 million from the city’s sewer utility to install new catch basins and other storm sewer infrastructure, work that Lantry said she would recommend be done regardless of the bike path.

Reducing the number of travel lanes to three would solve the turn lane problem and hold those costs down to $7.5 million, she said. About $5.9 million of that would come from bond funding, including $1.7 million in bonding for the bike-pedestrian improvements, such as lighting and curbs.

In other words, an annual debt payment of $204,000 would have to be put toward the bike-pedestrian portion of the bond-funded improvements for the next 10 years, tying up 40 percent of the city’s $500,000 bike-pedestrian account for a decade.

The width of the bike-pedestrian path would be cut in half from the original proposal, “basically going from more of a linear park-feel to more of a protected bike lane,” said St. Paul Bike Coalition co-chair Andy Singer.

“It’s not as good, but it’s still an improvement,” said Mike Madden, founding member of Neighborhoods First, an environmental advocacy coalition that once advocated for Ayd Mill to be converted into an $11 million linear park. “It’s still wide enough.”

THAO OPPOSES PROJECT

Council Member Dai Thao, who represents the Summit-University and Union Park area around Ayd Mill’s Selby Avenue terminus, has repeatedly opposed the prospect of a pedestrian-bike trail reducing the number of car travel lanes.

Thao’s concerns include potential traffic back-ups and drivers rerouting themselves onto nearby streets like Lexington Parkway.

On Wednesday, Thao pressed the issue.

“It’s hard to support that at this moment,” said Thao, addressing Lantry. “Why do (this) in a vacuum, when there could be a community process? … It sounds like we don’t have conclusive data to go ahead and support this proposal without thoroughly looking at the demographic changes that have happened (as a result of Allianz Field and other new construction). … It’s not ready. It shouldn’t even be on the bonding (request).”

Lantry said officials are in the process of studying speed limit changes intended to lower driving speeds on neighborhood streets citywide, which will help dissuade drivers from using local roads as crosstown highway connectors.

Council Member Mitra Jalali, who represents the Hamline-Midway neighborhood, said Ayd Mill Road had been studied for decades and suffers from deferred maintenance and heavy investment in vehicular travel compared to public transit.

Having said that, she said, there may be funds outside of traditional Public Works sources for a project of regional importance to economic development.

“It’s actually part of a long-running process to connect Minneapolis and St. Paul through a bikeway,” Jalali said. “This road is a key leg of it.” Related Articles Neighborhood girl finds and returns chef Justin Sutherland’s stolen knife roll

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Lantry said her department is running out of time if construction is to begin this year. A five-year citywide road repair plan will be presented to the council this month, setting the stage for bond sales to fund those improvements.

“We’re looking for financing to meet our project goals on this,” Lantry said. “We have a timing issue because of the bond sale that is upcoming, and the five-year plan, which includes project descriptions. We need to know what we’re going to build to include it in the five-year plan.”