New I-94 lane closure creates new backups

by MinnPost staff 06/19/201806/19/2018

New traffic woes. The Star Tribune’s Tim Harlow reports: “The Minnesota Department of Transportation warned drivers using westbound I-94 that they would experience delays when one lane on the freeway between Chicago Avenue and Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis closed. … The agency was right. … On Tuesday morning, motorists felt the pinch during the morning rush hour with backups extending back to Hwy. 280. … Overnight MnDOT closed the right lane and the result was a big dose of congestion.”

Also in commuting. The Minnesota Daily’s J.D. Duggan reports: “Two University-area bridges are facing structural deterioration, resulting in changes that will affect campus commuting and navigation. … The 10th Avenue Bridge is experiencing deterioration of its concrete, but will remain open while the design work for a rehabilitation project is underway through the end of the year. The University suspension pedestrian bridge near Wilkins Hall was closed earlier in the month due to structural deterioration, but it remains unclear if a replacement is feasible.”

Still a lot of questions here. The Star Tribune’s Andy Mannix writes: “The Minneapolis mayor and a group of City Council members on Monday proposed separate independent reviews of cases in which police officers urged paramedics to use the powerful sedative ketamine to subdue members of the public. … Mayor Jacob Frey and Police Chief Medaria Arradondo unveiled their proposal late Monday, vowing to launch an immediate search for an independent investigator to examine cases spanning 2015 to 2017 involving use of ketamine.”

Big power outage in St. Paul this morning. WCCO reports: “Equipment failure is to blame as thousands lost power Tuesday morning on the east side of St. Paul. … At the peak of the outage, more than 5,600 customers were impacted, according to Xcel Energy. … The spokesperson said the failure happened at a substation, and that the impacted customers were near the Dayton’s Bluff area of St. Paul. … Shortly after 9 a.m., it was confirmed that power was restored to all.”