More Than 70 Trees Headed for the Hennepin-Lyndale Medians

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.