Mitigation & Enhancements: 1-35W Access Project

"Rebuilding the Phillips community requires connecting it to the broader economy. That is my vision: that is the vision of the Phillips Partnership. Reconnection is why we are working for better access to and from I-35W, an essential artery of the regional economy."
-- Peter McLaughlin, Hennepin County Commissioner

The private-sector members of the Phillips Partnership have initiated $400 million in development in the neighborhood on the strength of the public-sector members’ ability to deliver needed infrastructure. This has resulted in 4,000 new jobs.

The $100 million in freeway access improvements the Phillips Partnership has mobilized complements nearly $750 million in light rail, roadway and greenway projects in or linked to Phillips.

I-35W Access Project
Construction of I-35W in the 1960s meant new opportunities for suburban growth, but poorly placed access to the freeway left South Minneapolis split in two and largely bypassed by the growing regional economy.

Working with Hennepin County, the Phillips Partnership proposed a plan in 1998 to improve freeway connections to Phillips and adjoining neighborhoods, with Lake Street as the primary focus.

Seven years, 30 designs and 200 public meetings later, a community-endorsed plan has been approved and the project will move forward. The I-35W Access project will improve traffic flow and expand transit service in South Minneapolis. It will introduce urban design around the freeway that is conducive to safer streets and the revitalization of neighborhoods. And it will help to open up the growing commercial corridor of Lake Street and the Midtown Greenway.