You're not imagining it. More transit construction is snarling travel in the Twin Cities.

Shops at 50th and France, the walkable shopping district straddling Edina and Minneapolis, had a rough year marked by orange cones and bus rapid transit construction. So did businesses in east St. Paul, where Gold Line construction closures made it tough for shoppers to reach businesses off Interstate 94. In the west metro, construction of the Green Line extension has prompted detours for cars and cyclists.

As Metro Transit expands its public transportation network, an unprecedented amount of transit construction is tearing through the Twin Cities — sometimes to the frustration of businesses whose customers steer clear. And even as this season's work slows, there's more to come, with the start of the Blue Line extension and more bus rapid transit routes in the coming years.

"We used to do a mega mega infrastructure project every 10 years," said Sam O'Connell, the Metropolitan Council's director of community relations. Now, the transit agency is opening a major transit line roughly every 18 months, as plans and funding come together to significantly fill out the Twin Cities' transit network.

"If you moved to Minnesota in the early 2000s, you probably didn't see a lot of transit construction," she said. "If you just moved in last week, you're going to see a lot of transit construction."

The growth of public transit across the metro connects growing communities to jobs, educational opportunities and day-to-day needs like health care, O'Connell said.

But business districts affected by the builds say the lack of resources to help them survive the disruption has caused major hardship, even as it brings opportunities and development.

"We've been sort of ringing the alarm bells that it did not go well," said Rebecca Sorensen, director of the 50th and France Business Association.

Blow to the bottom line

At 50th and France, the construction of two rapid transit bus stops for the E Line was expected to last a maximum of six weeks per stop and wrap up around Labor Day, Sorensen said. Instead, it was six months, finishing in late November.

The association has tried to make the best of the situation, Sorensen said, advertising that businesses were open through the disruptions and even setting up a pickle ball zone in a construction site. But some stores have gone out of businesses and many had seen sales drop around 40% as of mid-November.

"We need this to be a great holiday season or there will be many that do not make it for the spring and that's a terrible reality," Sorensen said.

Sorensen said the impact has been similar elsewhere along the route, including in Linden Hills and Uptown, and she's been shocked by the lack of resources to help businesses weather the disruption.

Paris Dunning, the executive director of the East Side Area Business Association, voiced similar concerns. Businesses on St. Paul's East Side have dealt with construction of the bus rapid transit Gold Line, expected to open March 22 and run from St. Paul's Union Depot to Woodbury along I-94, with a later expansion to Minneapolis.

Gold Line construction didn't totally cut off access to businesses around the Sun Ray Shopping Center, but the work made it more challenging to get to businesses around the strip mall.

"If your product is a hamburger, there are easier hamburgers to be had," Dunning said. "If your product is a gallon of gas, you're going someplace else."

He lamented that businesses are being asked to shoulder the effects of Gold Line construction, in addition to state road construction projects, without financial help after navigating the many challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing delays on the E Line, O'Connell said her heart goes out to businesses affected by delays in the project caused by efforts to coordinate with city projects, unforeseen issues and weather.

The Met Council has a role in connecting businesses and resources, but what is available to help businesses weather construction — typically offered through cities or counties — varies significantly.

Construction is also in progress along the bus rapid transit B Line, between St. Paul and Minneapolis, and is expected to begin in the coming years on several more projects, including the Blue Line extension through north Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park and several more bus rapid transit lines.

At a Move Minneapolis forum in November, business owners expressed concern that customers would shift their habits and shop elsewhere amid the disruptions.

"Our customers, I feel like, may avoid us for three years and then forget about us," said Seth Stattmiller, co-owner of Recovery Bike Shop, located at Lowry and Central avenues in northeast Minneapolis, a locus of recent road construction projects and a planned bus rapid transit line.

Transit projects spur development

Transit projects have created headaches for some businesses, yet they have helped attract others.

During the construction of the Blue Line 20-plus years ago, developers waited to see the effects of the first light-rail line in the Twin Cities, O'Connell said. Now, development is happening alongside transit projects, including nearly $3 billion in permitted and planned projects along the Green Line extension between Minneapolis and Eden Prairie, ahead of its scheduled 2027 opening.

That includes a lot of development in Hopkins along Blake Road, one of two future Green Line stops in that west metro city, said Danny McDonald, an insurance agent and the president of the Hopkins Business and Civic Association.

He said the Green Line extension has brought some challenges — such as a traffic-diverting closure of Excelsior Boulevard — but the disruption in Hopkins has been minimal compared to other places because the light-rail line is off the main drag by a couple blocks.

The growth coming with it is part of what brought McDonald himself to the area: "Especially in something like insurance, any time you have a growing population that breeds opportunity."

Across the metro in Oakdale, the upcoming opening of the Gold Line in March was a plus when owner Jessica Pressley considered a second location for Ember and Bean Roasting Co., her coffee shop in downtown Hudson. The new location opened in November on the ground floor of Norhart Apartments near I-94 and I-694.

"With some of the other businesses and housing developments that are going to be going in that area within the next five years, it just seemed like a really great spot," Pressley said.

The Gold Line bus stop is up, but crews are still moving dirt to complete the stop's park and ride lot. That's temporarily limited her customers' parking options.

"It's been a little bit of a challenge, but it's going to be great when it's done," Pressley said.