Pedestrians and bicyclists on Wooddale Avenue must presently cross busy Highway 7 along at-grade crosswalks and potentially have to pause at narrow medians along the way. (SETH ROWE - SUN NEWSPAPERS)

A new interchange for Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue will go forward following a winning bid that came in millions of dollars less than expected.

The low bid of $11.6 million from Ames Construction instead of an engineer's estimate of $14.9 million will save the city of St. Louis Park money and means it will not have to rely upon Hennepin County to fill a funding gap.

As a result, work is expected to begin on Highway 7's first intersection west of Highway 100 at the beginning of October or potentially even sooner.

The project will entail building a bridge for Wooddale Avenue to pass over Highway 7 and will include freeway-style entrance and exit ramps.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation approved Ames Construction as qualified for the job and the St. Louis Park City Council awarded the project to the company Tuesday, Sept. 8.

"They've done lots of projects of this magnitude both in Minnesota and outside of Minnesota, so we're very pleased that they got the low bid," City Engineer Scott Brink said.

Once work begins, traffic on Highway 7 will be shifted to the north side of the road as work on the south section proceeds. Access to and from Highway 7 from the south side of Wooddale will be cut off, though limited access to and from Wooddale would exist on the north side of Highway 7.

During a second stage, expected to begin in spring 2010, traffic along Highway 7 would move to the south as work on the north side progressed. Access to Wooddale Avenue on the north side would be cut off with limited access on the south side.

Full access would likely return in the fall of 2010.

"Our object is to get the whole thing done before the end of next year," Brink said.

Highway 7 will generally still contain two lanes in each direction during the project but will likely temporarily narrow to one lane in each direction for certain periods, he said.

Detours for Wooddale Avenue will be posted using MnDOT roads.

"It's a project that is well over due and probably should have happened a decade ago," Councilmember John Basill said. "There's probably not a more important project in our city to get kids across safe to their school."

Park Spanish Immersion School, Central Community Center and St. Louis Park Senior High School are all located near the signalized intersection. Pedestrians and bicyclists must presently cross busy Highway 7 along at-grade crosswalks and potentially have to pause at narrow medians along the way.

The project should also help ease heavy traffic that converges on the intersection during rush hours.

Basill said when he visits a local hardware store, "I might as well walk over and walk back because with the amount of traffic that backs up there it'll take a half hour to go a mile."

Added Councilmember Sue Sanger, "Because this new bridge will have a safe passage for pedestrians and bicyclists, finally you can more safely walk to the hardware store instead of taking your life in your hands when you run across Highway 7."

City Manager Tom Harmening credited the City Council for its "stick-to-it-iv-ness" on the project during the years of discussions and planning to secure funding.

"This is a pretty unusual project for a community like St. Louis Park to undertake," Harmening said. "There's a lot of federal money and stimulus money in this project and a lot of city money and blood and sweat in it as well, and maybe a couple tears here and there."

The low bid means the local portion of the project will go down by about $1.6 million, according to a staff report. The total cost of the project, including construction, right-of-way acquisition and engineering and administration is now projected to be $16.3 million. The city is on the hook for about $7.2 million of that, with the bulk of the rest coming from federal stimulus funds and a federal grant. MnDOT has also pitched in $900,000 worth of assistance in engineering and administration.

At the same time as the interchange project takes place, the Metropolitan Council will replace and pay for an additional $2-3 million in work on the sanitary sewer system in the area.

The work will create some hassles in the short-term, but Mayor Jeff Jacobs said a year or year and a half from now "it will have been worth the anguish and angst we've gone through."

"It's a project that is well over due and probably should have happened a decade ago," Councilmember John Basill said. "There's probably not a more important project in our city to get kids across safe to their school."

Park Spanish Immersion School, Central Community Center and St. Louis Park Senior High School are all located near the signalized intersection. Pedestrians and bicyclists must presently cross busy Highway 7 along at-grade crosswalks and potentially have to pause at narrow medians along the way.

The project should also help ease heavy traffic that converges on the intersection during rush hours.

Basill said when he visits a local hardware store, "I might as well walk over and walk back because with the amount of traffic that backs up there it'll take a half hour to go a mile."

Added Councilmember Sue Sanger, "Because this new bridge will have a safe passage for pedestrians and bicyclists, finally you can more safely walk to the hardware store instead of taking your life in your hands when you run across Highway 7."

City Manager Tom Harmening credited the City Council for its "stick-to-it-iv-ness" on the project during the years of discussions and planning to secure funding.

"This is a pretty unusual project for a community like St. Louis Park to undertake," Harmening said. "There's a lot of federal money and stimulus money in this project and a lot of city money and blood and sweat in it as well, and maybe a couple tears here and there."

The low bid means the local portion of the project will go down by about $1.6 million, according to a staff report. The total cost of the project, including construction, right-of-way acquisition and engineering and administration is now projected to be $16.3 million. The city is on the hook for about $7.2 million of that, with the bulk of the rest coming from federal stimulus funds and a federal grant. MnDOT has also pitched in $900,000 worth of assistance in engineering and administration.

At the same time as the interchange project takes place, the Metropolitan Council will replace and pay for an additional $2-3 million in work on the sanitary sewer system in the area.

The work will create some hassles in the short-term, but Mayor Jeff Jacobs said a year or year and a half from now "it will have been worth the anguish and angst we've gone through."