Dinkytown will see more street construction in 2026 to improve accessibility and safety in the neighborhood.
The construction, part of the Dinkytown Pedestrian Improvement Project and budgeted around $2.8 million, will focus on creating sidewalk ramps compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in Dinkytown. Minneapolis Transportation Planning Manager Nathan Koster said students can expect construction to start as soon as summer 2026.
Outside of improving disability accessibility in the area, the project is also looking to reduce vehicle crashes. Online survey responses and crash data are being used to figure out which areas of the neighborhood have the greatest need for accessibility and safety improvements, Mallory Rickbeil, the transportation planner for the project, said.
“We are going to prioritize improvements like pedestrian ramp upgrades, medians, curb extensions, traffic circles and basically to figure out how we can do the most we can with the budget we have available for this project,” Rickbeil said.
Dinkytown experienced similar construction last summer, although that was part of a separate improvement project led by Hennepin County and University of Minnesota years in the making, Koster said. Phase two of that project will begin on University Avenue later this year.
Construction for the city-led project in 2026 will be between I-35W and 15th Avenue Southeast on the east and west, and between the BNSF train tracks and 5th Street Southeast on the north and south, Minneapolis engineer Spencer Evert said.
The streets will be repaved in 2028, so construction next year is a good time to invest in safety improvements in Dinkytown, Koster said.
Evert said it is a legal requirement to have Minneapolis infrastructure compliant with ADA, and the goal of the city is to get ramps installed sooner to improve accessibility and mobility citywide.
While this project is a good first step, Executive Director of the East Bank Neighborhoods Partnership Chris Lautenschlager said more needs to be done.
Lautenschlager said creating a crosswalk in front of the Dinkytown Target and building a roundabout near 10th Avenue and 8th Avenue would make the area safer. However, the different jurisdictions make it hard for anything to get done.
“One jurisdiction blames the other. MnDOT blames Hennepin County and blames the city of Minneapolis. It’s a pointing match constantly about ‘We can’t do that because of this jurisdiction.
We can’t do that because of that. We can’t do it because of this rule,’” Lautenschlager said. “Well, in the meantime, people are dying.”
The city is hosting an informational community meeting with public comments about the pedestrian improvement project, in the University Lutheran Church of Hope on March 18 from 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Lautenschlager said he hopes this project does not get shelved and most importantly, the public perspective is valued.
“It’s always the frustrating thing about community meetings, whether it’s led by the City or other jurisdiction, is that they come in with their own concept of what they’re going to do, and they’re just essentially checking the box and having a community meeting,” Lautenschlager said. “We would like to think that we have a valuable perspective on the area.”
