Drivers who have spent the last year zigzagging around the Grandview District can finally see the finish line. After more than a year of detours and traffic snarls, Edina’s Vernon Avenue and Highway 100 bridge project is wrapping up, with city officials planning to reopen Vernon Avenue to traffic on Friday, June 26. A ribbon-cutting is scheduled for the day before to celebrate the end of one of the city’s biggest recent road projects. The roughly $28 million overhaul replaced two aging bridges and reworked ramps and signals that had long pinched traffic through the area.
Rebuilt bridges and safer crossings
The construction replaced both the Vernon Avenue bridge over the Canadian Pacific Kansas City (CPKC) railroad and the Highway 100 bridge, and it did more than just pour fresh concrete. The project added wider sidewalks, updated lighting, and redesigned turn lanes intended to smooth out traffic flow.
For people walking and biking, the upgrade is even more noticeable. The work includes 10-foot sidewalks, ADA-compliant pedestrian ramps, pedestrian refuge islands, and new traffic signals that are intended to make crossings safer and more predictable. According to the City of Edina, the project began in April 2025 and totals more than $28 million in improvements.
How a buried power line stalled work
The final stage of construction slipped into 2026 after crews discovered and struck an unexpected buried power line in the railroad right-of-way. That surprise find forced a pause while utilities and the railroad worked out relocation details and legal agreements.
Local coverage reported that City Engineer Chad Millner said neither the railroad nor the utility was comfortable letting crews continue until all the paperwork was signed, and that trying to keep the site active through winter would have added more than $2 million in costs for taxpayers. KSTP
Project updates on the official project site note that the buried line had to be moved before the west foundation could be built, which pushed work into this year and stretched out the schedule longer than initially planned. Better Together Edina
Businesses and commuters took a hit
All those lane closures and detours may have been necessary, but they were not painless. Nearby merchants and city operations reported that the construction period cut into customer counts and cash registers.
The manager of the city-run Grandview Edina Liquor told the City Council that the store saw roughly a 20% revenue drop in 2025, about $926,000, and that access issues forced a temporary two-week closure. The business concerns were raised directly with city leaders as the work dragged on and the detours stayed in place. Bring Me The News
Ribbon-cutting and reopening details
The city plans to mark the end of the major construction phase with a public ribbon-cutting from 2 to 3:15 p.m. on Thursday, June 25. Remarks are scheduled on the new Vernon Avenue bridge, with refreshments afterward at Davanni’s. Vernon Avenue is set to reopen to traffic the next day, on Friday, June 26.
Attendees are being directed to park in the Grandview Parking Ramp at 5101 Vernon Ave. Full event details and the official schedule are available in the city’s announcement. City of Edina
Officials say the rebuilt interchange is expected to permanently improve safety, mobility and connections between homes and businesses in the neighborhood, the kind of all-in-one fix that required coordination with both county and state partners. Hennepin County lists the Vernon and Highway 100 interchange among its 2026 road maintenance projects and notes the joint nature of the work with MnDOT and the City of Edina. Hennepin County
