St. Paul's East Side snarled by road, bridge, sewer work

At the Otra Cocina restaurant on St. Paul's East Side, Maria Capouch and her brother Miguel Linares no longer bother to serve breakfast.

Road work this summer around the intersection of Payne and Maryland avenues has decimated their dinner crowd, as well, so they close two hours early. On Thursday, they greeted their first lunch customer at 4 p.m.

"It's been really, really hard," said Capouch, who opened the cozy, family-run restaurant and catering business in January.

The Payne-Maryland intersection this summer took its place among a sea of detour signs and construction cones on the East Side. Even getting into or out of the area has become more difficult, thanks to a lengthy state project on Interstate 35E and construction of the new Lafayette Bridge.

Don Horsfall, an employee of Warning Lites, puts up a traffic barricade on the Kellogg-Third Street Bridge in St. Paul on Friday, September 26, 2014. The bridge will be closed to all users until Monday. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Then this week, the city announced more road work: The Kellogg Boulevard bridge between the downtown Union Depot transit hub and Mounds Boulevard closed Friday for restriping. When the bridge reopens Monday, its four lanes will be reduced to three.

St. Paul and Ramsey County officials say the repair projects are doing more than filling potholes. In some cases, sidewalks are being widened, lighting upgraded and improvements made for drivers and pedestrians alike.

"It's been a tough summer; there's no question about it," said city council member Dan Bostrom. "However, particularly when this intersection at Payne and Maryland is completed, it's going to totally transform this section of the neighborhood.

Bostrom is less enthusiastic about the city's plans to replace the Kellogg Boulevard bridge -- work that could take several years.

"If that thing gets shut down, that's going to be a major catastrophe," he said.

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St. Paul's East Side snarled by road, bridge, sewer work