Washington Avenue at U of M closes Monday to make way for light rail
The train is coming, and you'd better get out of the way.
Avoid driving Washington Avenue at the U from now on.
Sometime late Sunday afternoon, trucks are going to roll up Washington Avenue where it bisects the University of Minnesota campus and drop off a bunch of barricades. Work crews are going to maneuver them into position, and that's going to mark the end of an era: No more cars are going to be allowed on the thoroughfare between Pleasant and Walnut streets.
Detours are going to be posted, but do yourself a favor if you're driving and find another route to get around the campus, because the old way of driving there is never coming back. You might as well get used to that fact now.
Washington Avenue between Pleasant and Walnut streets at the University of Minnesota has started the transition to pedestrian mall to make way for light rail.
By the time the work is complete in 2014, When complete in 2014, the new Washington Avenue pedestrian mall will carry the Central Corridor light rail, and a roadway for buses, emergency vehicles, bikes and folks on foot. But that's it. 
The East Bank light rail station will be between Union and Harvard streets,
If you want to know more, click here to download the East Bank & Stadium Village 2011 Construction Overview.
Previously: Central Corridor construction, and headaches, begin
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