To the surprise of many, St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter announced earlier this week that Ayd Mill Road will be resurfaced into a “complete street” as part of a mill-and-overlay project next year.

Car traffic will be restricted to the westernmost two lanes as the eastern side is converted into a bikeway and pedestrian path.

The announcement, which came during Carter’s annual budget address Thursday, drew mixed reaction.

Some predicted traffic back-ups spilling into surrounding neighborhoods. Others foresee traffic “calming” the likes of which cyclists and homeowners have sought ever since then-Mayor Randy Kelly relinked the diagonal freeway connector to the interstate system in 2003.

The road itself dates back to 1960. But as a freeway link that doesn’t quite live up to its name, it’s presented a financial and political quandary for several mayoral administrations.

The four-lane thoroughfare runs from Interstate 35E — near the intersection of Lexington Parkway and Jefferson Avenue — up to Selby Avenue, five blocks south of Interstate 94. For years it’s been a craterous eyesore. Several mayors have been asked to complete the link to I-94 or abandon it altogether, sparing the surrounding residential streets from highway traffic.

“We’ve spent about $250,000 annually to keep the road barely serviceable,” said Public Works Director Kathy Lantry, addressing the city council last April.

At the time, the council approved $3.5 million for a mill-and-overlay fix for the pothole-riddled roadway. The move drew widespread calls to be more forward thinking and finally resolve what to do about a freeway connector that doesn’t actually link two freeways.

About 24,000 vehicles use the 1.5-mile road daily, making it one of the busier streets in the city.

ST. PAUL’S MIDTOWN GREENWAY

The added bicycle and pedestrian improvements bring the estimated total cost of the Ayd Mill Road resurfacing to roughly $5.2 million, most of it stemming from increased engineering costs.

In 2020, the northbound lanes will be converted into a protected two-way bike path and a pedestrian thoroughfare, not unlike the Midtown Greenway in Minneapolis. The existing southbound lanes will be used for both north and southbound traffic, restricting car travel to one lane apiece.

“There’s a lot of engineering work that needs to be completed for this plan, because we need to rework traffic signals and access points,” said Lisa Hiebert, a spokeswoman for St. Paul Public Works. “The bike and pedestrian infrastructure doesn’t exist now.”

The public will see work crews out on Ayd Mill Road in what remains of 2019, but most of the project will begin and end next year.

“They’ll be working on the drainage,” Hiebert said. “They’ll be doing an additional amount of pothole patching as well as skim-paving. They’ll be doing some sewer work. And there’s additional engineering.”

City Council Member Dai Thao, who represents the northern end of Ayd Mill Road, said he has concerns.

“There’s no plan for traffic mitigation,” Thao said. “Traffic in the neighborhoods is already a concern, especially at Dale, Lexington and Snelling. I’m all in support of bicyclists, but how many bicyclists and pedestrians are going to use that, versus the unintended consequences of more vehicles in the neighborhoods?”

Thao called for a traffic study with travel data and traffic modeling.

“Once we have data, maybe we block off southbound traffic for a couple months, and then we’ll know where all the southbound traffic is going to go,” he said. “I’m not for or against it, but we can’t just push this through without doing a cost-benefit analysis.”

By Friday, the St. Paul Bicycle Coalition had changed the profile picture on its Facebook page to a rendering of the freshly-reconfigured Ayd Mill Road.

“It’s sensible,” said Scott Berger, a St. Paul resident, on Facebook. “Forward thinking. Plus, only seldom are both lanes even in use as it is. I live a few blocks away, and I support this compromise. Little to no additional cost and surrounding property values are sure to rise.”

Tony Pirkl saw things differently.

The city, he said in a Facebook comment, is “spending massive amounts of money to satisfy the bike-riding habits of a relative few. Getting cars around in this town is way past a nuisance and into danger territory. Give us more lanes, not less. … The Short Line was built to alleviate traffic, not create more.”

Citywide, Carter’s budget includes a proposed $20 million for street reconstruction and mill and overlay projects, which mirrors what the city budgeted this year.

The mayor’s proposal includes $12.5 million in street reconstruction bonds and $8 million for mill and overlay projects where the top two inches of road are ground away and replaced.

“It’s continuing at the level we had for 2019, which was an increase from 2018,” Hiebert said.

That’s great news or paltry, depending upon whom you ask, given that the city’s consultants have found that road spending would need to more than double to $50 million to achieve noticeably better results than the status quo.

Carter and others have said the Legislature needs to step up with a new gas tax or find other ways to support road infrastructure statewide.

Carter also said streets citywide could see speed limit reductions as part of an effort to support pedestrians and reduce wear on the roads. He promised more news on that front in coming months.