Latest news with #St.PaulPublicWorks
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
St. Paul businesses call sinkhole timing a small blessing
The Minnesota Wild were eliminated from the Stanley Cup Play-offs on May 1, and a giant sinkhole opened up on West Seventh Street — a block away from the Xcel Energy Center — exactly one week later. Coincidence? Yes. Still, some businessowners are calling the timing a small blessing. No one wants a gaping hole running some 35 feet into the ground to open in front of their business. But if it had to happen, better that it take place in the post-season lull after professional hockey has let out and before the height of the summer concert season. At the Downtowner Woodfire Grill, there's been 'no impact on our business,' said general manager Patrick Johnson, shortly after Tuesday's lunch rush. 'It's been busy.' That sentiment was shared by a driver for Domino's pizza, a server at Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub and other frontline staff at West Seventh Street businesses. Private contractors under the supervision of St. Paul Public Works will spend up to two months repairing the man-sized sink hole that opened on the evening of May 8, forcing ongoing partial road closures between Chestnut and Walnut streets. Officials with the Xcel Energy Center said their day-to-day operations and events are not impacted by the sinkhole. They reminded fans attending Wednesday's Minnesota Frost game that they need to plan ahead due to road closures connected with the sinkhole. General traffic is being detoured between Kellogg Boulevard and Grand Avenue, though West Seventh in that stretch remains open for local business access, with one lane open in each direction. Sidewalks are unaffected. 'We don't want through-traffic there,' said Lisa Hiebert, spokesperson for St. Paul Public Works, on Tuesday. 'This is why we're saying local business access only.' Otherwise, there have been no direct water or sewer impacts reported by businesses, according to the city. City crews are examining whether water may have loosened and weakened the earth in the affected area. 'It's a good argument for why we need to reconstruct roads,' Hiebert said. 'What we can say is a lot of time, sinkholes are caused by voids caused by water, but it's still a little early to say what it was and what it wasn't. Sources of water can come from many places.' Filling the hole will be no simple patch job. Contractors will have to dig more than 30 feet through sandstone and limestone, assess damages and then rebuild the sanitary sewer tunnel. The work, which began Monday, will involve installing new utility connections for surrounding businesses, building out a new shaft to the surface and then replacing the road surface, without damaging a 20-inch water main. To ensure worker safety, crews will install temporary supports for the depth of the project. 'Nobody ever wants things like this to happen, but this is a good example of how quickly the city and the agencies came together to limit impacts to businesses in the surrounding area,' Hiebert said. 'The businesses, everybody was really great to work with.' Giant sinkhole on West Seventh Street will require digging down 30 feet Public media outlets MPR and TPT brace for federal funding cuts Thirty-five-foot sinkhole shuts down part of West 7th Street St. Paul, MN Wild trim Xcel Center's state request from $400M to $50M Minnesota loosens distance exemption on state employee return to office order
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Sinkhole shuts down part of West 7th Street for up to two months
A sinkhole that appeared Thursday night on West Seventh Street near downtown St. Paul has shut down the road for at least two months, city officials said. The stretch of West Seventh from Kellogg Boulevard to Grand Avenue will be open for local business access only. The sidewalks will remain open for pedestrians, city officials said Friday. Motorists should plan to take alternate routes and follow detours, city officials said. St. Paul Public Works and St. Paul Regional Water Services crews are assessing the cause of the sinkhole and beginning necessary cleanup and repairs, which may take up to two months. St. Paul, MN Wild trim Xcel Center's state request from $400M to $50M Minnesota loosens distance exemption on state employee return to office order Apostle Supper Club across from the Xcel Energy Center to close Metro Transit seeks feedback by Friday on 17 potential BRT routes Housing, downtown get top billing in Carter's State of the City address
Yahoo
07-04-2025
- Yahoo
Despite lawsuit, St. Paul removes 10 of 20 mature trees from Parkview Avenue
A legal effort by a group of homeowners to save 13 mature trees from a street bordering Como Lake ended last week with most of the decades-old maples reduced to stumps on the same day residents attempted to file a legal injunction against the city. Crews contracted by St. Paul Public Works removed 10 mature trees last Thursday, the first stage in sidewalk construction along the block, which has no sidewalks on either side, as part of the Wheelock-Grotto street reconstruction project. Four homeowners had filed a request for a temporary injunction, or restraining order against tree removal, that same day, after filing a legal appeal the day before against a Ramsey County District Court decision in the city's favor. The street reconstruction project aims to install sidewalks, street lighting, new water mains and other improvements in sections of streets around East Como Boulevard, Arlington Avenue, Dale Street and Maryland Avenue and is scheduled to roll out this year and next. The four plaintiffs — Rita Amendola, Mary Jane Sommerville, Aric Wilber and Jeff Clark — maintained in their civil suit against the city that they were repeatedly assured over the course of nearly a year that the city would work with them to install sidewalks on Parkview Avenue while doing its best to preserve their mature trees, which included multiple maple trees that were at least 70 to 100 years old. They said the city previously talked up the likelihood of 'meandering' the sidewalk around the trees, and pointed to correspondence or discussions on Sept. 16, Oct. 8 and Feb. 21. To their surprise, on March 11 the city indicated it would install the sidewalk on the south side of the street alone, but it no longer mentioned 'meandering' the sidewalk for tree preservation. Instead, they woke one day in mid-March to red 'X' marks around 13 trees on one side of their block, indicating the majority of their 20 mature trees would be removed within days. The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit March 20 under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act, or MERA, buying them some time as the city agreed to hold off on tree removal pending a court decision, which came down in the city's favor on March 31. Judge Edward Sheu found that 'no strict promises were made regarding tree preservation' and that removing 10 trees lacked the 'severity or quality' of a MERA violation. He noted that case law showed entire forests had been lawfully removed and replanted for major projects. While it may take decades for a sapling to become a mature tree, 'the Maple trees are not endangered, and they can and will be replaced,' he wrote. In its legal response to the lawsuit, the city attorney's office noted that the first phase alone of the Wheelock-Grotto project will cost $10 million, and any delay will add to costs borne by taxpayers, triggering the need for a $1 million bond. 'To potentially shutter construction for an entire already limited weather-related season with rising inflationary prices and construction costs demands that a significant bond be posted by the plaintiffs,' wrote an assistant city attorney in a legal filing on March 26. 'Status quo will be maintained as the trees will be replanted.' In court filings, the city 'seemed to believe that their one-to-one replacement of trees on our block would make up for the destruction of 70-plus-year-old Maple trees,' wrote Sommerville, in an open letter to City Council Member HwaJeong Kim and other city officials this weekend. The city ultimately removed 10 trees last Thursday, the day after residents filed their appeal of Sheu's order. 'I was also deeply disappointed in the process (through which) the city plowed through this initiative,' Sommerville wrote. 'The city claimed to be 'engaging' with its citizenry throughout, but lied to us repeatedly. In the end, it was clear that the city would do what they wanted all along.' Letters: We won't take attacks on Social Security lying down Letters: Instead of good governance, we get stunts, drama and lawsuits in St. Paul Allen seeks Ward 4 seat; Hamline-Midway Coalition disavows Hanson campaign Twin Cities restaurateur David Burley dies in motorcycle accident Rob Clapp: I'm invested in St. Paul. Work with me, city officials Sommerville said that adding insult to injury, she received an estimate in the mail for $13,600 'for our house alone,' she wrote. 'That was certainly salt in the wound.' Work trucks arrived Thursday, and tree after tree was removed by 'noise-deafening saws,' she wrote. 'When I was brave enough to go outside, after all the trucks departed, I didn't recognize my yard, nor my street,' Sommerville wrote. 'The rope ladder swing that my husband built during COVID lay on the ground. … My family and neighbors are heartbroken. But we are also very frustrated and angry.'
Yahoo
31-01-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
St. Paul: Highland Park, Payne-Phalen drivers — move your cars (weekly)
Drivers in Highland Park and Payne-Phalen would be wise to pay close attention to parking signs. Beginning Sunday, St. Paul Public Works will launch its pilot program, alternating parking on either side of the street on a weekly basis. The goal is to make room for plows and emergency vehicles all season, instead of trying to get drivers to move their cars during snow emergencies alone. Yes, temperatures hit the unseasonably warm low 50s this week (high temperatures will vary from the teens to the low 30s over the next seven days, with lows in the single digits). Nevertheless, Public Works officials say the point is to plan for snowier weather. The pilot program will continue through April 12, and then likely return next year for a second round of testing, possibly in new areas. If results are encouraging, it will be rolled out citywide. During 'even' weeks — weeks where a Sunday falls on an even number, such as Feb. 2, Feb. 16, March 2, March 16 and March 30 — drivers will be expected to park on the even-numbered side of the street based on home addresses. During odd weeks, park on the odd-numbered side. Sundays are changeover days, where drivers will have some grace time from 3 to 9 p.m. to shift from one side to the other. Detailed alternate one-sided parking maps can be found online at
