Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States
Saint Paul Skyway System
A city-owned network of enclosed second-floor bridges and corridors connecting about 47 blocks of downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, roughly five miles of climate-controlled walkway. Unlike most North American systems, the bridges are built and owned by the City and the public's right of passage through private buildings rests on recorded easements, with hours and conduct set by Chapter 140 of the Saint Paul Legislative Code.
Governance
Who owns it, who runs it, what the rules are.
- Owner
- The City of Saint Paul built most of the bridges between 1973 and 2001 and holds recorded public easements over the corridors, nodes and vertical links inside private buildings; Chapter 140 defines skyway space as 'easement area'. The buildings themselves, and the duty to operate and maintain each segment, stay with the private owners. This public-easement model is what distinguishes Saint Paul from Minneapolis, where the bridges are private.
- Operator
- Building owners operate, clean, heat, light and secure their segments and the bridges over abutting streets. The Department of Safety and Inspections administers Chapter 140, handles complaints and hours exceptions, and approves surveillance plans after Saint Paul Police review.
- Hours
- Ordinance hours are 6 a.m. to midnight daily for all parts of the system, including stairs, elevators and escalators from public areas. Exceptions require a Council resolution, and owners must post alternative hours. Emergency Executive Order 2022-12 lets segments close no earlier than 11 p.m. and was still listed on the city's emergency-orders page in 2026.Enforced[14]
- Public right
- The public holds an easement right of pedestrian ingress, egress and passage through the designated corridors. Owners may close only outside the hours set by ordinance or under a Council-approved exception. Blocking access during required hours is a 'safety hazard' under Chapter 140 and a misdemeanor, and DSI can order abatement.
- Who pays
- Under the General Policy Statement and easement agreements, owners pay for operating, maintaining, repairing and replacing the segments in their buildings and the bridges over abutting streets, plus heating, cooling and power to the bridges. Owners must also fund video monitoring or patrol security. If an owner fails, the city may do the work and assess the cost against the property; Ordinance 23-61 strengthened this. There is still no funded system-wide maintenance plan; the 2026 Defibrillator and Connected Downtown reports propose district increment financing, foundation grants, public-private partnerships, micro-assessment districts and a Skyway Conservancy.
Legal instruments
- Saint Paul Legislative Code, Chapter 140 (Skyway system) ↗Defines the pedestrian skyway system and easement areas, sets rules of conduct, safety requirements (lighting, temperature, emergency phones, video surveillance or patrol), signage, enforcement, appeals, and misdemeanor penalties.[13]
- Legislative Code §140.10, Hours of operation (as amended by Ord. 17-35, passed 13 September 2017) ↗All parts of the system must be open to the public every day from 6:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., replacing the earlier 6 a.m.–2 a.m. regime. Owners may petition the Council for exceptions after referral to the Skyway Governance Advisory Committee and a public hearing.[14]
- Ordinance 23-61 (adopted 13 December 2023) ↗Adds a declaration of policy, defines owner and responsible-party duties, nuisances, hazards and unsanitary elements, and lets DSI order and perform abatement using the Chapter 45 procedure.[15]
- General Policy Statement for the Construction of the Saint Paul Skyway System (1980, amended 2006) ↗Requires every part of the system to sit on public property or within a public easement. Sets cost sharing, the uniform Vierendeel-truss bridge design, and owner responsibility for operation, maintenance, repair and replacement, with city power to do the work and assess costs.[16]
- Recorded skyway easement agreements ↗Grant the public the right to use corridors for pedestrian passage, subject to reasonable closing conditions. They are coterminous with corridors and nodes, last for the life of the improvements, and can be relocated only with city approval.[16]
- Legislative Code §13.06 emergency executive orders ↗The mayor's emergency power has been used to change §140.10 hours, including 7 p.m. closing in 2020, a full closure during the May 2020 unrest, and an 11 p.m. floor from 2021–2022 onward.[22]
- 2025 charter amendment — administrative citations ↗Approved by voters in November 2025; lets the City issue administrative citations, including to owners who lock skyway doors or fail to maintain their portion of the system.[08]
- The Skyway Library — recorded agreements by bridge ↗Seventy-one recorded easement and skyway agreements for 45 numbered bridges, catalogued with the General Policy Statement and Chapter 140, browsable bridge by bridge on this site.[06]
Governing bodies
Open issues
- Whether the emergency order allowing 11 p.m. closing still applies, against the ordinance's midnight requirement.
- Links through the former Alliance Bank Center, the condemned Capital City Plaza ramp, and the Central Station light-rail stair have been closed since 2025, cutting key east–west routes; reopening is pending.
- Owner neglect and abandonment, especially of former Madison Equities properties, are testing the city's abatement and assessment powers.
- Disability advocates object that shorter hours and closed vertical links cut off people who rely on the skyways.
- Security, cleanliness and homelessness in the corridors drive recurring owner requests for earlier closing.
- No funded system-wide maintenance plan; a 10-year capital budget is proposed but not adopted.
- The 2024 Downtown Investment Strategy's 'skyway rightsizing' recommendation versus the 2026 Linear Park / Connected Downtown reframing.
The bridge library
Every bridge, every easement.
50 numbered structures from the City's inventory, 71 recorded agreements on file. Tap a number to fly to the bridge and read what governs it.
Timeline
- The First National Bank Building opens with a private 17th-floor bridge to the Merchants Bank Building — a predecessor, never part of the public network.[04]
- Developer William Davidson lays out the vision of a downtown without weather in the Pioneer Press.[04]
- The first public skyway bridge opens, connecting the Federal Courts Building and the Pioneer Press Building at Fourth and Robert, as part of a federal urban-renewal project.[04]
- The city begins building most skyway bridges itself, a program that runs to 2001, and buys pedestrian easements from building owners for the interior links.[17]
- City Council adopts the General Policy Statement for the Construction of the Saint Paul Skyway System on 8 January. It sets cost sharing, uniform bridge design, easement and maintenance rules and was amended in 1987, 1997, 2002 and 2006.[16]
- General Policy Statement revised to its current form.[03]
- The Capitol River Council's Skyway Governance Advisory Committee passes a resolution asking for standard, uniform skyway hours.[17]
- Council Member Dave Thune proposes an ordinance setting uniform skyway hours of 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week, at the advisory committee's request. A 2 a.m. citywide closing was in force by 2016.[17]
- Union Depot reopens after a $243 million renovation and joins the network, extending it east through Lowertown.[04]
- The City Council rejects a building manager's request to close skyways at 10 p.m. instead of 2 a.m.[29]
- On 13 September the Council passes Ordinance 17-35 by 6–1. It moves closing from 2 a.m. to midnight and requires DSI-approved video surveillance or patrol plans. It takes effect 25 October 2017.[14]
- Ordinance 17-35 amends Chapter 140 to set uniform corridor hours of 6:00 AM to midnight and reconstitutes the Skyway Governance Advisory Committee.[05]
- Emergency Executive Order 2020-05 on 9 April lets owners close at 7 p.m. during COVID-19. Order 2020-12 on 29 May closes the whole system through 1 June during civil unrest.[19]
- Emergency Executive Order 2022-12 on 23 February keeps reduced hours of 6 a.m. to 11 p.m., letting segments close no earlier than 11 p.m.[21]
- On 13 December the Council adopts Ordinance 23-61, adding a declaration of policy and a nuisance-abatement process. The city can now order owners to fix hazards, abate them itself, and recover costs under Chapter 45.[15]
- On 2 April the city restricts skyway access through Alliance Bank Center after its owner stops paying for utilities and security. Inspectors condemn the Capital City Plaza ramp the same day, closing further links.[07]
- On April 2 the City restricts skyway access through the vacated Alliance Bank Center, severing the RiverCentre and arena connection from the core; the Capital City Plaza ramp is later condemned, closing more links.[07]
- Saint Paul voters approve a charter amendment enabling administrative citations, a new tool against owners who lock skyway doors or neglect their portions of the system.[08]
- The Downtown Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Saint Paul Downtown Alliance, buys the former Alliance Bank Center; officials target reopening the closed skyways before winter.[27]
- A 681-response community survey finds 81% call the skyway essential to downtown; the Linear Park Alliance petition asks the City to reclassify the system as a linear park.[09]
What it cost · who pays
- Bridge cost-sharing rule · 2006
- Negotiated per bridgeThe City may pay part of each bridge's cost, set case by case by the Council; owners pay all corridor, structural-support and mechanical costs. The 1980 policy originally assigned bridge construction and architect's fees over public right-of-way to the City.[16]
- Bridge renovation (estimate) · 2026
- US$150,000 – 250,000 per bridgePlanning estimate used in the Building Skyway Governance proposal; roughly 40-year service life per repaired section.[10]
- City relocation aid for businesses displaced by the 2025 closures · 2025
- up to US$5,000 per businessoffered after the Alliance Bank Center and Capital City Plaza closures[23]
The story
Saint Paul's skyway grew out of the same postwar competition with enclosed suburban malls that produced the Minneapolis system across the river. Minneapolis opened its first bridge in 1962; in Saint Paul, developer William Davidson of the Pioneer and Endicott buildings pushed the idea of a downtown without weather, and the first public bridge opened in 1967 between the Federal Courts Building and the Pioneer Press Building as part of a federal urban-renewal project. The city then hired Hammel, Green and Abrahamson to plan a comprehensive network, which is why Saint Paul's bridges share one standardized Vierendeel-truss design while Minneapolis's differ building by building.
The governance model is the system's defining feature. The City of Saint Paul pays for and owns the bridges that span public streets. Building owners pay for the corridors, nodes, stairs, elevators and signage inside their buildings, and they grant the City recorded easements for public pedestrian passage. The General Policy Statement for the Construction of the Saint Paul Skyway System, adopted by the City Council on January 8, 1980 and revised in 2006, codifies that split. Chapter 140 of the Legislative Code then treats skyway space as 'easement area' and regulates conduct, hours and enforcement.
Hours are the clearest example of public control, and the clearest record of how contested it is. The Skyway Governance Advisory Committee asked for uniform hours in 2007; Council Member Dave Thune's 2008 ordinance set 6 AM to 2 AM; the Council refused a building manager's 10 PM request in 2016; and on 13 September 2017 Ordinance 17-35 moved closing to midnight and required DSI-approved video surveillance or patrol plans, taking effect 25 October 2017. Emergency executive orders then cut hours to 7 PM in the first weeks of COVID-19, closed the whole system during the May 2020 unrest, and in 2022 set an 11 PM floor that was still listed in 2026. What no ordinance controls is each building's street doors, which close on the owner's schedule, so the practical question for a pedestrian is often not whether the skyway is open but whether they can get into it from the sidewalk.
Enforcement has hardened as the private side of the bargain weakened. Ordinance 23-61, adopted 13 December 2023, added a declaration of policy and a nuisance-abatement process that lets the City order owners to fix hazards, do the work itself and assess the cost against the property. In November 2025 voters approved a charter amendment allowing administrative citations, a faster tool against owners who lock doors or neglect their segments.
The system expanded fastest in the 1980s with Town Square, Galtier Plaza and the Minnesota World Trade Center, and reached Union Depot in 2012. The pandemic then exposed how dependent the network is on private building health. After the collapse of downtown's largest landlord, Madison Equities, the City restricted access through the emptied Alliance Bank Center on April 2, 2025 and later condemned the Capital City Plaza ramp, severing the RiverCentre and arena side of downtown from the core. The City stepped in as intermediary landlord to keep elevators and corridors running, a tacit acknowledgment that the skyway is infrastructure the city depends on rather than a private amenity it tolerates.
The current debate is about what the skyway should be. The 2024 Downtown Investment Strategy proposed 'rightsizing' the network and shifting retail to the street; the 2026 Defibrillator Report and the Connected Downtown strategy argue the opposite, calling for uniform rules, a funded ten-year maintenance budget, a Skyway Conservancy and reclassification as a linear park. In November 2025 voters gave the City administrative-citation powers that can be used against owners who lock doors, and a 681-response survey found four in five respondents consider the skyway essential to downtown.
Questions people ask
Who owns the Saint Paul skyways?
What law governs the Saint Paul skyway?
Can a building owner close a skyway connection?
How is the Saint Paul skyway different from Minneapolis?
How long is the Saint Paul skyway?
What hours is the Saint Paul skyway open?
What happens if a building owner neglects its part of the skyway?
Sources
- Skyway System — City of Saint Paul (2026)primary
- Downtown Skyways GIS layer (Skyways FeatureServer) — City of Saint Paul (2026)primary
- General Policy Statement for the Construction of the Saint Paul Skyway System — City of Saint Paul (2006)primary
- Double-decker downtown: Walking through the past, present, and future lives of St. Paul skyways — Pioneer Press (2026)
- Chapter 140 — Skyway System (as amended by Ordinance 17-35) — Saint Paul Legislative Code (2017)primary
- The Skyway Library — easement agreements for every bridge — Saint Paul Linear Park Alliance (2026)primary
- Saint Paul Limits Downtown Skyway Access Through Alliance Bank Center — City of Saint Paul (2025)primary
- St. Paul voters approve 2 ballot questions — Bring Me The News (2025)
- The demand — 681 voices on the Saint Paul skyway — St. Paul Skyway Map (2026)
- Building Skyway Governance: a concrete plan for the St. Paul skyway system — Think Tank + Friends of the Skyway (2026)
- Public Comment — Skyway Systems (Minneapolis vs. Saint Paul ownership) — City of Minneapolis (2024)primary
- Skyway Governance Advisory Committee — Capitol River Council (2026)primary
- Skyway — City of Saint Paul, Department of Safety and Inspections (2025)primary
- Ordinance 17-35 (signature copy): Amending Chapter 140 pertaining to Skyway Conduct — City of Saint Paul (2017)primary
- Ordinance 23-61: Amending Chapter 140 regarding the maintenance of the Skyway Pedestrian System — City of Saint Paul (2023)primary
- General Policy Statement for the Construction of the Saint Paul Skyway System — City of Saint Paul, Department of Planning and Economic Development (2006)primary
- Uniform Skyway Hours – Saint Paul is open for late night and weekend business — City of Saint Paul, Ward 2 Council Office (2008)primary
- City of Saint Paul announces new skyway regulations to take effect tomorrow, October 25 — City of Saint Paul (2017)primary
- Emergency Executive Order 2020-05 — City of Saint Paul, Office of the Mayor (2020)primary
- Emergency Executive Order 2020-12 — City of Saint Paul, Office of the Mayor (2020)primary
- Saint Paul Skyway Executive Order sign (EO 2022-12, 6 A.M.–11 P.M.) — City of Saint Paul (2022)primary
- Emergency Executive Orders — City of Saint Paul (2026)primary
- Downtown's skyways suffer from closing of Alliance Bank Center, Capital City ramp — The Villager (2025)
- Shut St. Paul's skyways at midnight? It's not an easy call — MPR News (2017)
- How a plan to prevent bird deaths may change the way Minneapolis regulates its entire skyway system — MinnPost (2016)
- What's Next for the St. Paul Skyway? — Mpls.St.Paul Magazine (2026)
- Closed skyways in downtown St. Paul set to reopen before winter, revitalization underway — FOX 9 (2026)
- St. Paul commits to reopening 3 shuttered skyway sections near former Alliance Bank Center — KSTP (2026)
- Should St. Paul skyways close earlier than 2 a.m.? — MPR News (NewsCut) (2016)
- Friends of the Saint Paul Skyway — Friends of the Saint Paul Skyway (2026)
- St. Paul Skyway Changes Create Barriers for People with Disabilities — Access Press (2025)
About this record
Confidence high · reviewed 2026-10-19. Built from the spskyway.com /skyway page, the Skyway Library catalog, the City GIS inventory, the Defibrillator Report, the Connected Downtown strategy, and a web pass over the City's ordinance PDFs (17-35, 23-61), the General Policy Statement and emergency executive orders. Bridge-by-bridge build years come from an unpublished draft inventory and are flagged as unverified in the bridge catalog. The 2022 executive order's 11 PM floor versus the ordinance's midnight requirement is unresolved on the City's own pages.
Map geometry: 821 corridor features, Corridors © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); structures: City of Saint Paul Downtown Skyways GIS layer, as of 2026-08-10. Levels come from OpenStreetMap tags and can be incomplete.
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© 2026 Open Civic Intelligence Ventures LLC. Quote with attribution and a link; terms.