The Minnesota DNR plans to extend the paved riverside trail 2.2 miles west of Lyndale Avenue and cross Nine Mile Creek on a new bridge. The state can't start digging until Bloomington's City Council approves its plan to make up for the wetland the bridge will take out. The decision was scheduled for the Aug. 3 meeting. The city's online page for that meeting doesn't post the result.
The council has a say because of Minnesota's Wetland Conservation Act. The bridge will permanently fill 0.2 acres of floodplain forest. To offset that, the DNR plans to buy 0.4 acres of restored wetland credits from a wetland bank upstream in Eden Prairie. That's twice the acreage being lost, and it's the same type of wetland. A temporary creek crossing used to build the bridge will be restored once the work is done. Engineers also have to follow rules protecting threatened species, especially the northern long-eared bat, so the DNR plans to clear trees early in the winter.
Engineers kept the wetland loss small by running the trail between the mapped wetlands to the north and the Minnesota River to the south.
Here's how we got here. The Legislature authorized the trail in 1969 and approved capital bonding for it in 2014. Once finished, the paved route for biking and walking will connect the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge in east Bloomington to the Bloomington Ferry Trailhead on the west side. Phase 1A, a 1.7-mile stretch from Lyndale Avenue east to the Xcel power line corridor, was finished in 2020. Phase 1B, which continues east to the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, has its funding. Phase 2 heads the other way, from Lyndale west to Nine Mile Creek. The city lists it as partly funded and tentatively scheduled for 2026. Wetland delineation and archaeological review are already done for the full 13-mile corridor through Bloomington. The DNR has no estimated date for finishing the entire trail through the city.
With the wetland plan approved, the DNR's schedule calls for building the bridge this winter, paving the trail in spring 2027 and giving the disturbed plants until spring 2028 to grow back. Whatever the council decided, the next sign of progress you'll actually see is tree clearing along Nine Mile Creek once winter sets in.
