Drivers have been asking when West River Parkway in south Minneapolis will be opening, and the answer is Sept. 1, according to a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board.
"We will be removing all detour signs and barriers on September 1," Deborah Bartels, a landscape architect and project manager with the board told the Drive in an email. "Over the next two weeks both the bridge and slope repair contractors will be restoring the paving of the parkway and trails that were damaged by construction operations."
West River Parkway has been closed between 4th Street and the Franklin Avenue bridge since a mid-2014 mudslide. The closure, in place while crews stabilized the bluff, has put about 6,900 motorists and 1,000 bikers who used the street on detour ever since.
Park officials say their long-awaited stabilization of the river bluff will be completed in time to reopen the parkway as the Franklin Avenue bridge reopens. The bridge was closed this summer for reconstruction, but is scheduled to open to traffic by Labor Day weekend, Hennepin County officials said.
