Study settles on pedestrian-friendly 2nd Street

Nov. 29—MANKATO — Users of Second Street and government officials came to the same conclusion: It would be nice to give a little more room for trees and pedestrians, even if it means a little less space for drivers and parkers.

The recommendations of the Second Street Corridor Study, adopted by the Mankato City Council Monday night, call for a narrowing of traffic and parking lanes from Mulberry Street to Madison Avenue. The result would be wider sidewalks and/or more boulevard space for trees, landscaping and benches.

The year-long corridor study focused on the section of Second Street approaching downtown but not within the downtown itself. It's a challenging piece of street for transportation planners because it carries a lot of traffic into the city center but also is home to houses, apartment buildings, a church, a school and multiple businesses.

The two final alternatives presented to the public earlier this year each cut driving lanes from 12 feet to 11 and on-street parking lanes from 12 feet to eight.

In Alternative A, the extra space was targeted at a wider sidewalk from Plum Street to Washington Street and a wider boulevard on the rest of the segment. Alternative B would have kept the sidewalks and boulevards the same width while creating a tree-lined center median between the opposing lanes of traffic.

Alternative A, which also would install bump-outs at intersections to make it easier for pedestrians to cross Second Street, was the preference of 425 online survey respondents, along with attendees at a meeting with business owners and community members contacted on the street.

In all, 54% supported or strongly supported Alternative A and 25% opposed or strongly opposed it. With Alternative B, the combined number of supportive respondents was 43%, with those opposing totaling 37%.

Alternative A was also the preference of the project management team, made up of staff from the city, project consultant SRF Consulting Group and the Mankato-North Mankato Area Planning Organization.

As for uses of the extra boulevard space, community members favored trees and landscaping followed by garbage and recycling receptacles, public art and bench seating.

Intersection improvements are also recommended by the planning team. The recommendations include reducing the number of lanes on Plum Street between Second and Riverfront Drive from five to three and adding a median island to make it easier for pedestrians to cross. At Mulberry, several changes to the traffic signal system are proposed to increase pedestrian safety, along with extending the center median on the Veterans Memorial Bridge to the Second Street crosswalk to provide a pedestrian refuge.

At Washington Street and at either Elm or Rock streets, pedestrian-activated crosswalk flashers would be added along with center medians to give street-crossers a refuge midway across.

Even with the narrower driving lanes and other changes, the street will still work well for vehicles, according to the report.

"Based upon forecasted traffic volume trends, the roadway will maintain adequate vehicular capacity in the long-term with this configuration," the study concluded.

The section of Second Street was once scheduled for nearly $2.6 million in improvements in 2023, but the work has been dropped from the city's current five-year construction plan.

With the recommended alternative now estimated to cost $5.2 million, the Second Street improvements will wait until after the completion of upgrades to Riverfront Drive, which runs parallel to Second Street. An even larger project, the Riverfront Drive reconstruction could happen as soon as 2024 and could also involve a reduction in traffic lanes to boost pedestrian amenities.

Council member Dennis Dieken expressed doubts about some aspects of the Second Street study and suggested delaying adoption. But other council members persuaded Dieken that the recommendations could be analyzed and debated in more detail when the project reaches the design and approval stage several years from now.

"We accept the study," Council President Mike Laven said. "It doesn't say we're going to do everything in the study tomorrow."

At a minimum, the city would need to take another look at traffic and pedestrian levels to see if they've changed prior to approving the final design and authorizing construction later this decade, said City Manager Susan Arntz.

"We'd want to update traffic counts," Arntz said. "We'd want to update all those measurements."