Northfield council continues focus on expanding multi-use trails, bike lanes with 2025 streets project

In advance of several important projects next year, Northfield’s City Council is focusing on making its growing network of multi-use trails and bike lanes more “complete, consistent and connected.”

The package of projects set to go forward next year will include pavement reclamation along Washington Street, Laurel Court and Industrial Drive, plus mill and overlay work in the southwest part of town along adjacent sections of Maple Street, Lake Drive and Superior Drive.

While the road improvement sections of the project are expected to improve pavement quality and extend the life of those sections of street, the proposed modifications to pedestrian and bike infrastructure represent the most substantive changes to the city’s infrastructure.

Northfield’s growing number of bike lanes have become well known for their somewhat confusing diversity of types, from protected bike lanes to sharrows (shared bike lanes and bicycle boulevards) to traditional painted and buffered lanes.

Building off of the updated Pedestrian and Bike Plan adopted in 2018, the Council worked with consultants from Alta Planning and Design in 2022 to identify the best approach towards building bike infrastructure which is safer and flows more smoothly.

The recommendation developed with Alta was to embrace protected or off-street bikeways, with City Engineer Dave Bennett noting that putting protected bikeways on one side of the street can limit the amount of space they take up in a neighborhood.

One of the most notable upcoming pedestrian and bikeway infrastructure projects is likely to be a rebuild of the Sechler Park Trail from Laural Park to the Compost Site. The Minnesota DNR is supportive of the plan and could help to fund it through lottery proceeds.

An additional stretch of trail in south Northfield could soon be constructed to connect the current dead end of an existing trail along Washington Street with existing trails to the south. However, Bennett said that both projects are unlikely to proceed in 2025.

Based on the CIP Pedestrian and Bikeway Analyzation, next year’s projects are expected to include a new stretch of bikeway/trail along Washington Street, along with trails along Maple Street and Laurel Court, and improvements to numerous intersections along the way.

Plans for next year’s road improvements projects are still in the middle of review, with ample feedback from the neighborhood and Council yet to come. However, Improvements to numerous intersections within the scope of anticipated projects will likely take place next year.

At the intersection of Washington and Ames Streets, for example, the city’s review with Alta concluded that incorporating a marked crossing on the south leg and curb extensions on the northeast and southeast corners would be best.

With support from the state, a stretch of the Mill Towns Trail is currently under construction from Riverside Park to the Highway 246 Roundabout, and in 2025, construction will take place on another stretch from Woodley Street and Spring Creek Road to Waterford Bridge.

The two pieces will be connected in 2026, with a feasibility report ordered for that project at the Council’s June 4 meeting. However, area residents expressed concern with the specific route of that project, especially near the Woodley Street and Spring Creek Road intersection.

Under the plans preferred by city staff, the trail would cross from the west side to the east side of Spring Creek Road before reaching the intersection with Woodley Street if one is going northbound — a route which neighborhood resident Elaine Schaffner warned is unsafe.

However, Bennett warned that exploring significant route changes could make it very tough for the city to complete the stretch of trail scheduled for 2025, as significant modifications would be necessary, at a time when staff is meeting with property owners regarding easements.

Councilor Kathleen Holmes, who had amended the motion ordering a feasibility report to require the examination of an alternate route in the area, said that she understood Bennett’s concerns and would be willing to withdraw that formal request.

At the same time, Holmes said that she hopes and trusts that Bennett and Engineering Manager Sean Simonson would continue to work to address the concerns of neighborhood residents and look for creative ways to minimize the impacts on property owners and trees.

Mayor Rhonda Pownell shared that she had met with councilors Holmes and Jami Reister to discuss the best way forward with regards to the city’s bike infrastructure. The three ultimately came to the conclusion that upgrades to Washington ought not to be prioritized so long as its southern end dead ends.

“We felt that maybe a pause here would be a good thing to look at, in terms of waiting until we are able to make it a more comprehensive, connected, complete, consistent path that connects into areas further south,” Holmes said.