Buffalo siblings pose for photos on I-35W the only two times concrete was laid

Richard Imholte and his sister Charlotte Pavlik were preschoolers when Interstate 35W was built through south Minneapolis in the late 1960s. Their father snapped a picture of the siblings sitting on the concrete just months before it opened to traffic to document the historic and controversial arrival of the freeway.

Last month, as the Minnesota Department of Transportation nears completion of the first major reconstruction of the road in more than 50 years, the brother and sister from Buffalo, Minn., had a repeat experience, posing for the camera while in the traffic lanes near Lake Street.

"This is pretty neat," Imholte, 58, said. "It was exciting, and knowing I was part of the second reconstruction."

The most recent photo taken safely while the freeway was closed to traffic allowed Imholte to connect to his childhood when he tagged along with his late father, Olyan, to construction sites. Imholte went to several bridge and road projects his father worked on, including the original I-35W.

That planted the seed, Imholte said, and the Monday after college graduation in 1982 he went to work for his uncle's construction company. Imholte's dad was his boss.

Imholte left the road business in 1999, only to return when he started his own company in 2002. He started doing residential concrete work but did have a hand helping the company that rebuilt the I-35W bridge after it collapsed in 2007.

Since then he has worked on bridge projects all across Minnesota and the Dakotas. As a subcontractor for MnDOT, he put expansion joints and seals on most of the 11 bridges that were built or rebuilt as part of the agency's four-year, $240 million I-35W reconstruction between downtown Minneapolis and 43rd Street. The project, to be completed Sept. 10, marked only the second time new concrete was laid.

"It's a very small participation, but important," Imholte said. "It protects them [the bridges] and keeps water from infiltrating and washing out and eroding."

While on the job, he showed co-workers the fuzzy 1967 photo of himself and his sister in the northbound lanes between Lake Street and Franklin Avenue, with only the Foshay Tower sticking above the skyline, Pavlik, 59, said.

"They thought it was cool we had the old picture," she said. "It's always been a neat picture."

With the freeway closed July 11, Imholte got permission from MnDOT to bring his sister to a site near the Lake Street Transit Station to re-enact history.

"He spent a lot of time figuring out the right spot," Pavlik said. "When he started working on the [35W] job, he said this is where my dad worked. It was special for him."

The construction of I-35W through south Minneapolis wiped out as many as 900 properties and more than 50 square blocks between downtown Minneapolis and the Crosstown. Thousands of people lost homes and businesses to eminent domain, with the first properties seized in 1958, according to historical accounts. It took a decade to complete the segment, which opened in 1968.

At that time, the Foshay Tower was the tallest building and the focal point of the downtown skyline. But even as other skyscrapers sprouted, the view of the historical landmark from northbound I-35W remains.

"You can still see that part of history," Pavlik said.

For the siblings, the photos captured 54 years apart are a treasured keepsake, a small piece in history that maybe nobody else has ever had.

Said Imholte: "We thought it was a nice remembrance."

Tim Harlow • 612-673-7768