Infrastructure Projects

The road runs through a ravine once belonging to John Ayd, a German settler who operated a grist mill at a nearby pond in the mid-1860s. By the late 1870s, the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad had bought a right of way and built the “Short Line” through the ravine. While there was talk of building parks in the area even then, it remained exclusively a rail route for decades.

By the early 1960s, the Short Line road was built with the idea of linking I-35E in the south with I-94 to the north. Neighborhood opposition to the completion of I-35E delayed that project, however, and stymied the connection. Between 1965 and 1992, the road carried very little traffic. The city built a ramp connecting Short Line Road to I-35E, but it was unused. In 1993, the city changed the street’s name to Ayd Mill Road.

https://www.stpaul.gov/departments/public-works/projects/ayd-mill-road

News Articles:

• Transformative Ayd Mill Trail Opens in Saint Paul (November 17, 2020)

• Ayd Mill Road reopens, giving smooth ride and optimism (November 7, 2020)

• Ayd Mill Road: A Historic Earth Day Win (April 29, 2020)

• St. Paul's Ayd Mill Road will get a greenway in 2020 (4-22-2020) 

• St. Paul City Council votes 4 to 3 to approve three-lane Ayd Mill Road (4-22-2020) 

• Carter pitches green option for crumbling Ayd Mill Road (8-26-2019)