Minneapolis, MN
City of Minneapolis celebrates $57 million stormwater tunnel
Minneapolis city and state officials cut the red ribbon at a gathering Thursday to celebrate the completion of a new $57 million stormwater tunnel. The tunnel runs approximately 70 feet below the street surface on Washington Avenue South and was constructed parallel to an already existing tunnel.
The Central City Tunnel System is a system of stormwater tunnels that collect runoff for nearly all of downtown with some dating back to the 1800s. Any runoff collected via the tunnels is then routed to deposit into the Mississippi River.
City and state officials performing a ribbon cutting ceremony at the completion of a new tunnel at Mill Ruins Park in Minneapolis.
Chandra Colvin | MPR News
The new tunnel will help increase runoff capacity for the overall system. The goal is to improve the efficiency and speed of filtering water down to the river. That helps reduce flooding and prevent tunnel failures.
“As of a couple years ago, Minneapolis was the city second most impacted by climate change,” Mayor Jacob Frey said.
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Frey says the state is seeing “huge” changes in how the thaw at the end of the winter season occurs.
City Council member Michael Rainville agrees that the climate of the world is changing.
“Imagine the cities on the southeast coast that have 25 inches of water in a two-day period of time? How the heck do you handle all that stuff? If something like that happens here, we are well prepared,” Rainville says.
The capacity of the tunnel is three times the size of existing ones. It can hold up to approximately 4 million gallons of water, said Angie Craft, Minneapolis public works director of surface water and sewers.
“We have an investment in the future of our community that will last for generations to come, keeping the water moving to the river so that people can keep moving through the city,” Craft said.
A project banner near the new tunnel’s entrance at Mill Ruins Park in Minneapolis.
Chandra Colvin | MPR News
Sunshine and comfortable temperatures return Thursday before a weekend warm-up sends highs into the 90s. Heat index values could reach the triple digits early next week. FOX 9 meteorologist Jared Piepenburg has the forecast.
Posted
A 28-year-old St. Paul woman who admitted in federal court to assaulting law enforcement officers during a protest last year in South Minneapolis has been ordered to pay a $25 fine.
Isabel Lopez was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John Tunheim in Minneapolis after accepting a plea agreement to a lesser misdemeanor charge of assaulting, resisting and impeding a U.S. officer in connection with a protest that broke out while authorities were executing a search warrant that a crowd mistook for an immigration raid in June 2025.
Lopez was originally charged by indictment with three felony counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding officers and one felony count of obstruction of law enforcement.
Lopez faced up to one year in prison on the misdemeanor conviction, however, the defense and prosecution both asked Tunheim for no prison time. The prosecution requested one year of probation, which Tunheim turned down.
According to court documents, law enforcement officers from multiple federal agencies were executing eight search warrants in the Twin Cities on June 3, 2025, related to an investigation into narcotics trafficking, money laundering, human trafficking and related offenses.
The investigation began with the discovery of 900 pounds of methamphetamine in a Burnsville storage unit, with a street value of between $22 million and $25 million.
Shortly after a search warrant execution began at Cuatro Milpas restaurant on Lake Street, a crowd began to gather.
“The crowd appeared to be under the mistaken belief that law enforcement was present to arrest individuals illegally present in the country for immigration offenses,” the criminal complaint said. “This was incorrect.”
After recognizing the apparent misunderstanding, law enforcement explained the nature of the search warrant to the crowd, according to prosecutors.
As part of her plea agreement, Lopez admitted to hitting an FBI SWAT agent with her arms and closed fist, and kicking another agent. The officers were not injured. As law enforcement attempted to leave the scene, Lopez threw a softball at the back of a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy.
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