Richfield Transportation Commission Recommends 'Curve Option' for Richfield Pkwy. North Connection Route

After months of discussion, the Richfield Transportation Commission chose the 25 mph curve construction option for the project Wednesday night.

The connection project aims to increase the connectivity of the Bloomington Avenue access, to and from, Highway 62. Commission members debated several different construction options, including a “no build” alternative, all of which had been presented by the city at an open house in January 2011. The measure recommending the implementation of a 25 mph curve alternative was ultimately chosen Wednesday and will now go before .

An open house will be held from 7-8:30 p.m. March 10 in the gymnasium for residents to voice their opinions on the commission's recommendation.

In addition to the Richfield Parkway project, the commission discussed current and future road construction plans for Richfield city streets:

• Tom Whitlock, of Damon Farber Associates, made a presentation to the commission regarding an extensive construction project on the 66th Street Corridor between Portland Avenue and Cedar Avenue. The presentation focused on current and future revised land use and redevelopment opportunities along the street, with emphasis on how to make the corridor more appealing to commerce while continuing to develop and maintain open space for walking and biking connections in the area.
• The commission discussed the recent reduction of Portland Avenue from four to three lanes; a change made in Fall 2010. The reduction is currently only active between 68th Street and 76th Street. While the reduction is currently limited to roughly eight blocks, city employees and members of the commission are waiting for resident feedback on the traffic lane reduction before making further changes.

"The [city] council ultimately decided to do the reduction in lanes on Portland, but said, 'Let's do it as a pilot before we end up doing a complete reconstruction of an entire road,'" said Jeff Pearson, a transportation engineer with the city. "So that's basically where [Portland Avenue] sits right now while we wait to get residents' feedback."

In other business:

• The commission discussed funding possibilities for the highway underpass at 77th Street, which in recent years has been unsuccessful. The discussion was tabled for another meeting.

• Jeff Hall, the city's park and fleet operations manager, gave an update regarding winter maintenance of public sidewalks.
• An update on the progress of Richfield's Bicycle Master Plan Task force was presented.

The transportation commission's next meeting will be at 7 p.m. April 6 at Richfield City Hall.