The Minnesota Department of Transportation is planting more than 70 trees, along with shrubs and ornamental beds, in the medians of the Hennepin-Lyndale corridor between Dunwoody Boulevard and the Interstate 94 ramps.

The Ward 7 council office said the work was set to begin in early May 2026 along the braided set of lanes that funnels traffic between downtown, Loring Park and the lakes, one of the busiest stretches of road in the ward. For decades the crossing has offered drivers little more than concrete, signal poles and guardrail; the new plantings are the first significant softening of the corridor.
The project is a partnership between MnDOT and Citizens for a Loring Park Community, the neighborhood group that has pushed for greening at the park's edges for years. The corridor sits on state right-of-way rather than city land, so a neighborhood that wants trees there has to work the state process, which the group has done through a public-private partnership with MnDOT and Green Minneapolis. The Ward 7 office credited state Sen. Scott Dibble and project leader John Van Heel, who has overseen the landscape contract, with moving the work forward.
The landscaping arrives against larger questions about the same roads. Hennepin and Lyndale avenues have been the subject of reconstruction planning that reaches well beyond the medians, and to the south, Hennepin County is rebuilding Lyndale Avenue South between Franklin Avenue and West 31st Street, a project that has drawn sharp debate over parking and bike lanes. The median trees are a smaller, faster change along a corridor where the bigger work will take years.
Median landscaping of this scale typically means short-term lane shifts and crews working close to live traffic, so drivers should expect intermittent slowdowns. The Ward 7 office encouraged residents to route questions through the city's 311 service. The trees will take seasons to fill in, but the change to the corridor's character is meant to be permanent.

Hennepin County is expected to bring its final design for rebuilding Lyndale Avenue South to the Minneapolis City Council this month, after a June 1 public meeting where Uptown business owners and cyclists clashed over a plan that adds a bikeway and cuts about a quarter of on-street parking.

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The Lowry Hill Neighborhood Association board meets the first Tuesday of each month, 7 to 9 p.m., at the Searle Mansion, 1915 Logan Ave. S., where parks requests, traffic concerns and land-use notices get aired.

For the first time in years, the Hennepin Avenue corridor through Uptown heads into summer without an active construction zone, the rebuilt street now served by the METRO E Line that began carrying riders in December.