Ayd Mill Road

The foundation of the roadway dates back to the 1870s when the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad acquired the right-of-way of the stream bed to lay down tracks. The "Short Line," as it was called, was one of the main interurban routes that served Saint Paul and its railroad suburbs on its way to Minneapolis at the turn of the 20th century. With the advent of the TCRT streetcar system in the 1910s, the line was redundant and was converted to heavy rail by the CMSPP, though it still carried passenger trains between the Saint Paul Union Depot and the Milwaukee Road Depot in neighboring Minneapolis. In the 1960s, the city of Saint Paul began construction on the Short Line Road, envisioning a below-grade, limited access direct link between I-35E and I-94. In April 2024 MnDOT misspelled the I-35E exit for Ayd Mill Road accidentally installing a sign that read "Ady Mill Road". ==Current status==

The adjacent track is still used today by Canadian Pacific and Amtrak's Empire Builder runs on these rails. In 2019 the Saint Paul City Council approved mill and overlaying the road in its current configuration for $3.5 million. Mayor Melvin Carter requested turning two lanes into a greenway but that plan would have cost $9.8 million due to drainage problems. The corridor is built on a buried stream which causes drainage and pavement preservation challenges. The council ultimately approved a $7.5 million construction project that reduced lanes from four to three and added a protected bicycle and pedestrian trail. ==Notes==