The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) announced they will not recommend a parkway or boulevard alternative to transform the I-94 corridor between St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Our Streets, a local organization that submitted the boulevard recommendation to MnDOT, and others criticized the decision as unsafe and wrong.

The recommendation is part of the ongoing Rethinking I-94 project which aims to reimagine the 7.5-mile-long stretch of the freeway that connects the Twin Cities. 

MnDOT presented the next steps for the project in the first I-94 Policy Advisory Committee meeting of the year on Jan. 17.

Looking toward the long-term future of the project, other ideas for Rethinking I-94 will be reviewed and analyzed throughout the year, MnDOT spokesperson Ricardo Lopez said.

“It looks like late 2025 or potentially early 2026 is when we’ll be publishing what’s called the draft scoping decision document,” Lopez said. “That will be the big document that includes all this analysis about our recommendations.”

After this, there will be a public comment period on the different alternatives proposed in the document in 2026, Lopez said. 

Our Streets advocacy and policy manager Alex Burns said there is still time to restore the boulevard alternative back into Reimagining I-94. 

“The decision is not final,” Burns said. “Our focus is on doing everything we can during the coming months to raise awareness about this project, the consequences of it and to connect people with decision-makers so that, hopefully, the accurate options can be restored for the next phase of this process.”

The decision was reached partly due to concerns over increased traffic congestion on nearby streets from the boulevard, as well as concerns about increased starting and stopping of vehicles creating more opportunities for collisions, Lopez said. 

“It wouldn’t do so great for walkability, bikeability and safety,” Lopez said. “A freight-separated freeway means that vehicles and pedestrians and bicyclists are not sharing the same time and space.”

Burns said only looking at the increased number of possible instances of collisions does not necessarily mean keeping I-94 a freeway is the safer option. 

Because cars are not frequently stopping on freeways, there are fewer points for collision, Burns said. However, due to the faster speeds, Freeway crashes are more dangerous.

“While a crash may occur less often, a crash that results in permanent injury or death is more likely to occur on I-94,” Burns said. 

Additionally, Burns said it doesn’t make sense that MnDOT considers a boulevard plan that includes protected bike lanes and new sidewalks bad for walkability while basing safety on these possible collision points. 

“By that logic, the safest transportation system for people walking and biking would be to either ban all people walking and biking or turn every street into a freeway,” Burns said. “There are ways we can make this a wonderful place to walk, but I mean, they’re not really interested in having that conversation.”

While Rethinking I-94 is a long-term project, MnDOT is committed to developing an alternative, Lopez said. 

“We’re working to make sure that we can get to an alternative that everybody can live with,” Lopez said.