Franklin Avenue reconstruction

County Road 5 in South Minneapolis

Hennepin County, in coordination with the City of Minneapolis, is evaluating ways to improve safety, accessibility and comfort for all road users along Franklin Avenue (County Road 5) between Lyndale (County Road 22) and Chicago avenues.

Franklin Avenue reconstruction info sheet (PDF)

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Public involvement

Share your thoughts on potential Franklin Avenue designs

We’ve been working hard turning your feedback into some designs and now we have some to share.

You can view the potential concepts and provide feedback by taking our project survey.

Potential concept survey:

Other ways to provide feedback

We have already begun efforts to get input from people who live, work and travel on the corridor. Now is the time to share your thoughts about your current concerns and the future needs for the roadway. This will keep things moving forward so we can complete work in 2026.

Please feel free to visit our online input portal to learn more and tell us about your experiences on the corridor. We also encourage you to sign up for project email updates below.

Previous outreach

The county hosted an open house on March 20, 2023 at Plymouth Congregational Church.

View the 2023 open house presentation board (PDF)

View the 2023 project one pager.

The county hosted an open house on October 3, 2022 at Plymouth Congregational Church.

View the 2022 open house presentation boards (PDF)

View the 2022 open house project one-pager.

Hennepin County also hosted open houses on November 21, 2019, and March 5, 2020. During the time between open houses, the county performed a corridor study of this segment of Franklin Avenue.

View the 2019-2020 open house materials (PDF)

Project goals

In its current form, this segment of Franklin Avenue includes a four-lane, undivided roadway (meaning there is no median in most areas) with off-peak parking at certain locations and no facilities for people biking. There are opportunities to improve transportation for all users of Franklin Avenue:

Provide designated space for different travel modes.
Provide safer pedestrian crossings at intersections
Allow for better community connections along the corridor
Support local businesses and institutions with improved access
Enhance the visual character with lighting, trees, green space and furnishings
Minimize traffic delay for people using transit and driving

As one of the first steps we are completing an alternatives analysis, where we review possible layouts, share for public input and select a preferred alternative for design.

View our one-pager on changes to Franklin Avenue (PDF)

More about Franklin Avenue

Franklin Avenue is a key east-west corridor in South Minneapolis with dense land uses and mixed-use buildings.

Franklin Avenue from Lyndale to Chicago avenues is a four-lane undivided roadway with off-peak parking at certain locations.
Franklin Avenue from Chicago to Bloomington avenues is a three lane roadway with on-street parking at some locations.
There are no bike facilities along this segment of Franklin Avenue, and sidewalks and curb ramps are generally in a poor state of repair.
This corridor is part of the City of Minneapolis’ Vision Zero High Injury Network, meaning that there are existing safety concerns for all people using the corridor.
Franklin Avenue is served by Metro Transit’s bus routes 2 and 9.
Both the Hennepin County Bicycle Transportation Plan and the City of Minneapolis Bicycle Master Plan denote Franklin Avenue as a future bike route.

Franklin Avenue corridor study one pager (2019) (PDF)

Project leadership