In downtown St. Paul, the second leg of St. Paul’s Capital City Bikeway will run largely down 10th Street, converting part of the street into a one-way route.
Over the objection of a group of building and small business owners, the St. Paul City Council voted 7-0 on Wednesday to move forward with the bikeway’s north leg, which will coincide with an ongoing downtown pavement and sidewalk improvement project this fall.
The $630,000 bikeway segment was budgeted last year from the city’s parking fund and capital improvement bonds. Given that mill and overlay work is already scheduled, “this is the most effective time to do it,” said Council Member Rebecca Noecker.
The new bike route will be laid out in three sections. It will take the form of a two-way protected bikeway along 10th Street between Dorothy Day Place and Jackson Street, as well as bike lanes on Ninth Street between Jackson and Broadway Street by Interstate 94.
The bikeway will remain at the same elevation as the road, but could be separated by a curb or mini-median in sections, depending upon costs and driveway conflicts. The design, including type of traffic buffer, is still being finalized.
The treatments are considered “interim” because the city is not conducting a full street reconstruction.
Vehicular traffic will become one-way westbound along the bikeway’s middle section east of Cedar Street, with the bikeway running along the south side of the street. The strategy preserves parking on the north side of 10th Street within a small business area.
The owner of the Rossmoor Lofts building at 10th and Robert streets joined proprietors of Tin Whiskers Brewery, Camp Bar, Sawatdee Thai, Black Sheep Pizza, Keys Cafe and multiple residents of the Pointe Condominiums in raising concerns about the loss of parking from both the bikeway and the proposed Rush Line bus corridor.
“Downtown St. Paul retail was already difficult, and there are now additional challenges — such as elimination of customer parking — just as we are struggling to survive the current economic impacts from COVID-19,” reads their joint letter to Noecker.
In response to those concerns, Noecker said she negotiated “really substantial discounts” for validated patron parking at the city-owned Block 19 and Robert Street parking ramps, as well as improved access from Ninth Street.
Noecker said she discussed the design with the St. Paul Fire Department, which maintains a station on 10th Street, and she was assured it would not impact response times. In an emergency, the department can control the traffic signal and travel 10th in either direction.
The first segment of the Capital City Bikeway was completed in 2017 during a full road reconstruction along Jackson Street from University Avenue to Kellogg Boulevard. Unlike most in-street bike paths, that segment was elevated to be level with the sidewalk and separated from traffic.
The overall goal is create a downtown loop and bike network that connects to existing pedestrian trails.