Business owners along St. Paul’s Arcade Street found “road closed” signs up and down the street earlier this week, sectioning off more than a half-mile of the business corridor from Frost Avenue to Wheelock Parkway.

They also found “road closed” signs along another half-mile of Arcade Street from Maryland Avenue to Magnolia Street, posted months ahead of the original summer schedule. They found smaller sections of the corridor closed to traffic in between those segments, including the area bordering Johnson High School from Cottage Street to Ivy Avenue.

What they didn’t find was road signage explaining detours or how to access local businesses during the long-awaited road reconstruction project. A hotline number advertised by the Minnesota Department of Transportation took them straight them to voicemail, they said.

On Tuesday morning, MnDOT sent out an email notice outlining the Arcade Street road closures, some 24 hours after they had already begun.

“We were promised construction closures in three stages,” said Nickolas Raehsler, owner of the Arcade Laundromat near Case Street, in an email Monday to a MnDOT spokesperson. “The project engineer on site today said they started into phase 2 early, last minute, because the contractor wanted to start early. Maryland Avenue to E. 7th St. should have NO road closure signs whatsoever until later this summer.”

“We were also promised business traffic access on the whole stretch of Maryland to E. 7th St.,” Raehsler wrote.

MnDOT responds

Mai Xiong, a spokesperson for MnDOT, said coordinating with utility companies for underground utility replacements — including lead pipe removal — required shifting schedules around, and information about the new schedule was shared at a community meeting on March 13.

“We learned about the utility updates the week before. We made a graphic to try to show the phasing updates,” said Xiong, noting many business owners have taken the work in stride. “In hindsight, it could have been more clear.”

She added that electronic signage went up Tuesday at Minnehaha Avenue, near Neid Lane and York Avenue, and near Maryland Avenue indicating businesses are open during construction.

Xiong and other MnDOT staff went door to door Tuesday between Maryland Avenue and Neid Lane offering to answer questions.

A concern over access

But other business officials also had concerns. Paris Dunning, executive director of the East Side Area Business Association, noted that MnDOT’s written reassurances that “local access” to businesses had been retained relied on a tortured definition of “access.”

“The thing about ‘local access’ does not mean lanes down Arcade are open. Anyone who has been out there is clear on this: ALL lanes down Arcade are closed right now,” wrote Dunning, in an email thread with other business owners. “You cannot drive down Arcade street. You can ACCESS Arcade street from side streets. Park on a side street and walk over to Arcade. … Meanwhile, no one can get to Seeger Square from 7th (Street).”

Dunning said MnDOT had not posted promised signage listing the businesses open during road construction and how to access them, or how to navigate to parking. “Businesses in this stretch from Maryland to Neid expected inconvenience and stress and one month of heavy impact in front of their business,” he wrote. “That began today … months (early).”

Chue Cha, dentist and building owner at Natural Dental in the 1400 block of Arcade Street near Wheelock Parkway, said while his business was appointment-based, he saw little traffic at the nearby Holiday Gas station Tuesday, and he felt for the new owners of Sun Moon Boba and Café, one of the few active tenants in the business center across the street. At noon Tuesday, the coffee shop — which serves Pho soups, Boba teas and coffee drinks — had yet to draw a single lunchtime customer.

“These businesses, there’s no traffic at all,” said Cha.

Singying Sayaxang, who took over management of the café two months ago with her sister Lwa Sayaxang, said she understood road construction was on the horizon when she went into business there, which helped lower the cost of her lease. She said she is nervous and hopeful at the same time.

Construction through fall of 2026

MnDOT, in its public notice Tuesday, said the closures from Frost Avenue to Wheelock Parkway, and between Maryland Avenue and Magnolia Avenue, will continue through early summer, with intersections closed intermittently throughout the project area.

No two consecutive intersections will be closed at the same time, they said. Parking will be available on side streets only, and short-term lane closures on Arcade Street between Wheelock Parkway and Maryland Avenue are likely.

Crews will reconstruct the road and replace water mains and storm water sewers. The overall two-year road reconstruction project spans East Seventh Street and Arcade Street between Interstate 94 in St. Paul and Roselawn Avenue in Maplewood.

Construction, which will include resurfacing the road and updating sidewalks, curb ramps, driveways, lighting, traffic signals and bus stops, is anticipated to be complete in the fall of 2026.

More information is online at dot.mn.gov/metro/projects/e7th-arcade/index.html

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