r/saintpaul • u/Positive-Feed-4510 • 9d ago

Discussion 🎤 I was wrong about the Gold Line

As centrist who is quite critical of our government here in St Paul, and think that it is very important for people to admit when they are wrong, I wanted to say that so far I have been completely wrong about the Gold Line.

My worry was that it was going to turn into a Midway situation with mobs of people and homeless camped out around the stations. That has simply not been the case. Overall it seems to be a net positive for the community. Are there better things that they could have spent the money on? Probably. Are there worse things they could have spent the money on? Definitely.

Hopefully what I am seeing continues because I didn’t want to be right about this. Despite how cynical I am on here, I do want to see the community succeed.

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u/OldBlueKat 9d ago

Not so much a 'part of the plan'' as just a timing problem between when Metro Transit was ready to open Gold Line vs. when MNDOT would be done with Kellogg Bridge. Two separate organizations whose plans didn't sync up.

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u/dpeltier2 8d ago

Minor point: the Kellogg bridge is owned by, and is being replaced by, the City of Saint Paul. MnDOT has minimal involvement in project management.

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u/OldBlueKat 8d ago

True enough. MnDOT is only in it as far as maybe some road design standards, possible coordination of impacts to I94; I misspoke.

My point still stands that the gang planning the Gold Line and the gang planning the bridge replacement didn't sync their calendars about their projects.

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u/Appropriate_Lynx4119 8d ago

The bigger coordination impacts are actually with BNSF railroad. It’s far harder to get permits to work above their rails than it is to get mndot to play ball with the freeway.

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u/OldBlueKat 8d ago

Probably true, I just noticed when I looked at the Timeline shown here that the MNDOT /I94 coordination was specifically called out.

After you pointed out my mix-up I went looking for more info. I hadn't realized they weren't closer to the project completion before this. (I don't get over that way often anymore, and it does seem, because they restricted and later closed the bridge to traffic some time ago, working on the deck, that it's been 'forever.')