Traffic plan sought for Vikings stadium area

By Brian Johnson
Dolan Media Newswires

MINNEAPOLIS — There’s nothing like a $1 billion stadium project in a busy downtown area to give traffic planners headaches. Throw in a few other big projects, and the challenges mount.

With the new Vikings stadium and a $420 million mixed-used development rising out of the ground, the east side of downtown Minneapolis soon will become a hot destination for football fans, residents, office workers and shoppers.

Those changes, which will reach a fever pitch when the new stadium opens in 2016, are the impetus for the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority’s request for a traffic-management plan in the area.

Steve Maki, senior stadium director for the authority, said the plan “feeds off of” traffic studies previously completed as part of the stadium project’s final environmental impact statement.

“It’s kind of the next step toward making sure for event days it all flows and works,” Maki said, adding that a similar analysis was done for Target Field on the other side of downtown.

Maki said a number of national firms are interested in the traffic-management contract. Authority officials said they hope to have a consultant on board by Dec. 15.

According to the authority’s request for proposals, the plan will encompass strategies for safety, timing of traffic signals, street closures, parking ramp operation and mass transit use, among other things.

The consultant will be asked to study other cities with urban stadiums and document best practices in areas such as parking, crowd control, signs and tailgating.

But the 65,000-seat Vikings stadium is not the only big project in town.

Adjacent to the stadium site, Minneapolis-based Ryan Cos. US Inc. is building the $420 million Downtown East development, which includes two 18-story office towers for Wells Fargo, roughly 550 apartments, commercial space, a park and a parking ramp.

The Hennepin County Medical Center also is planning a $191 million expansion on property between Eighth and Ninth streets and Park and Chicago avenues. Near there, Kraus-Anderson wants to redevelop its property with a new headquarters building and other uses.

According to comments on the stadium project’s final economic impact statement, city of Minneapolis officials said a traffic management plan for all modes of travel “will be critical to a positive event experience for game days” and other stadium events.

The traffic plan will include details such as where traffic-control agents should be on game days, what types of messages and way-finding devices should be used, and where charter buses and taxis need to stage, said Jeff Handeland, principal professional engineer for the city of Minneapolis.

Proposals for the traffic-management plan are due Nov. 14. The exact cost, Maki said, will not be known until all the proposals are in, but it is expected to be between $100,000 and $200,000.