This was a walking workshop I helped lead for the 2026 Designing Cities conference.
Sean Hayford Oleary
Richfield City Council
Matt Huggins
Hennepin County Project Engineer
Kristin Asher
Richfield Public Works Director
Joe Powers
Richfield City Engineer
Dan Edgerton
Consultant and Richfield resident
Stop 1
I-35W & 66th Street Station
- Reflecting on the bus ride from downtown Minneapolis
- Discussing history of Orange Line bus rapid transit and relationship to other bus routes (D Line, K Line, and local bus routes including 515)
- 66th Street & 35W underpass design, retrofitted for road project
General resources
Stop 2
66th & Lyndale
- Richfield’s unique history of roundabouts — some of the busiest in the state. Check out the old Richfield Roundabouts website from when our first two opened!
- Redevelopment, and challenges of creating great frontage in small urban-suburban downtown
- Lyndale Avenue reconstruction to the south, and modifications to the north.
- Protected bikeways and relationship between street design, maintenance, and building design (landscaping, bikeways, parking)
Additional resources
Stop 3
Kirchbak Sculpture Garden
- One of several “public-private” park spaces in downtown Richfield
- Established as part of the massive “Richfield Urban Village” project
Additional resources
66th Street and Lyndale, 1994 versus 2024
Stop 4
66th & Nicollet
- History of county involvement on arterials
- Plans for new Nicollet Avenue
- Learning lessons from other arterials (e.g, raised crossings, roundabout design)
Additional resources
- Nicollet Avenue municipal consent layout (2024 – PDF)
- Note: some details have changed since this layout
Nicollet Avenue cross section
Stop 5
East 66th Street
- Interface of “complete streets” arterials to 1970s-built local streets
- Maintenance and other considerations of lighting, landscaping
- Role of citizen input in guiding projects like these (Richfield Transportation Commission)
Additional resources
- Building a 66th Street for All (blog post)
- 66th Street landscape layout, showing overall project (2016 – PDF)
66th Street and 2nd Ave S (two blocks west of Clinton), before and after rebuild
Stop 6
66th & Portland
- One of Richfield’s first roundabouts, and busiest in the state of Minnesota
- Process to determine a roundabout versus an expanded signal
- 2023 project to address “Crosstown 62 bike gap” to Minneapolis and D Line bus rapid transit
- Lack of coordination with larger 66th Street bikeway project
Additional resources
- Alternatives considered for Portland & 66th, comparing right-of-way impacts of signals versus roundabouts (PDF)
- Richfield Roundabouts website (archived 2007 website)
- Portland – Crosstown 62 bike gap project layout (2018 PDF; layout had additional refinements after this)
Portland & 66th pre-roundabout
Portland and 66th before and after rebuild — before is pre-2007, facing toward the northeast corner, after is post-2008, facing the southwest corner
Stop 7
77th & Portland
494 & Chicago
- 494 project — moving bike-ped investments forward in context of freeway expansion
- Balancing equity and neighborhood protection in the area with unique factors for Richfield
- Partnering with Bloomington on bridge, working to connect commercial and residential
Stop 8
Mall of America Station
- Connecting D Line, Blue Line, Red Line, and many local bus lines
- Busiest transit station in the state
- Significantly renovated 2020
Mall of America Station prior to 2020 renovation
Stop 9
Bloomington Central Station
- Public-private redevelopment and spaces
- Mixed-use transit-oriented development — rental, for-sale residential, office, and retail
- Commercial challenges (grocery)
Additional resources
- South Loop District Plan — note that 2025 updates start on page 125 (2013/2025 – PDF)
