I-94 land bridge and Robert Street reconstruction projects in St. Paul get federal funds

Federal funds announced Friday will bolster two major St. Paul infrastructure projects: planning for a land bridge over Interstate 94 and reconstruction of Robert Street on the city’s West Side.

The Rondo project over I-94, led by the St. Paul group ReConnect Rondo, aims to cap the interstate between the Lexington Parkway and Dale Street exits and use that space to build parks, homes and businesses. Project leaders hope the land will help repair the Rondo neighborhood, divided by the interstate’s construction in the 1950s and 1960s.

Keith Baker, ReConnect Rondo’s executive director, said a $2 million federal grant announced this week will fund an environmental assessment process and community outreach work.

“A community-led effort is important,” Baker said.

The award announced Friday adds to another $2 million awarded in 2023, both from the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The law contained $1 billion set aside for a program called the Reconnecting Communities Pilot, which aims to address the harmful effects that past transportation projects had on places like St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood.

More than 1,000 homes and businesses in Rondo, the center of St. Paul’s Black community, were torn down to make way for construction of I-94 in the 1950s and 1960s.

The total cost of the land bridge could be more than $450 million.

Project leaders have estimated planning and pre-development work will cost from $13 million to $15 million.

ReConnect Rondo also has received $6.7 million in state funds for planning work.

Baker said he wants to make the process of environmental review and impact analysis as broad and inclusive as possible, in contrast to past city planning that Baker said has tended to exclude Black residents and businesses in Rondo.

The land bridge assessment is separate from MnDOT’s Rethinking I-94 process.

Another $25 million in funds from the infrastructure law was awarded for the reconstruction of S. Robert Street on St. Paul’s West Side.

The state-led project will give Robert Street more bicycle and bus lanes, in preparation for a possible bus rapid transit line. Some parts of the street will see parking spaces replaced with grassy boulevards, and some sidewalk crossings are being reshaped to be more accessible to people with disabilities.

The federal funds will support that work and pay to rebuild the viaduct that carries Robert Street in a trench between Cesar Chavez Boulevard and King Street on the West Side. Service roads on either side of the trench will become dead-end streets, which MnDOT hopes will make for fewer crashes on Cesar Chavez.