City Of Duluth Exploring Solutions For 7 Brew Traffic Congestion

Since the coffee chain 7 Brew opened their Duluth location in the development on the corner of West Central Entrance and Anderson Road, it's been a popular stop for coffee lovers.

The chain's first Twin Ports area location officially opened on August 17, and since then, it's been a common occurrence to see a line of cars waiting to grab a beverage.

I stopped in on August 18 to check it out and waited in a line of cars that came down the driveway and out onto Anderson Road. While the line seemed a little off-putting, I have to hand it to the 7 Brew team for keeping the line moving pretty quickly.

Those lines have gotten even longer, however. I drove by yesterday (September 7) and saw a line that went around the corner and extended along West Central Entrance for quite a distance.

At one point, the line was seen extending more than a quarter-mile along Central Entrance to the Mall Drive intersection near where Home Depot and Texas Roadhouse are located.

That's a lot of traffic. And it's causing frustration for drivers in the area as well as residents who live on Anderson Road. Those traffic challenges and frustrations are being recognized by the City of Duluth.

The City of Duluth shared yesterday afternoon on social media that they have been seeing the significant increases in traffic congestion near 7 Brew. The city's engineers are currently exploring solutions to the issue. In the meantime, city officials ask drivers in the area to remain patient.

Some people in the comments on the City of Duluth's post explained that they waited in the line of cars on Monday for more than an hour. The reason wasn't just because people wanted a coffee, however.

One person said their wait was a couple of hours, explaining that Monday's line of traffic was particularly long due to a free "Brew-Doh" giveaway promotion that impacted traffic near 7 Brew locations around the country on Labor Day.

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While that promotion, which wreaked havoc around the country, is over, there are still traffic issues to contend with at the Duluth location.

Some in the comments on the City of Duluth's post suggest the hype for the new business will eventually fade, and traffic levels will subside. That may be true, but that is a hard thing to predict.

It will be interesting to see what sort of solutions the City of Duluth's engineers come up with and how long it takes them to implement them.

Across the bridge in Superior, they should be making notes as well. With the location opening at the corner of Tower Avenue and 21st Street sometime this fall, possible heavy traffic could be expected there as well.

Other places where 7 Brew locations have opened have seen similar challenges, including Apple Valley down in the Twin Cities, which saw traffic congestion so bad that the city had to put out an alert about it.

What Will The New Blatnik Bridge Replacement Look Like?

The long-standing Blatnik Bridge between Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, will be replaced, with work set to begin in February or March of 2027.

The new bridge is expected to open by October 31, 2031, with the completion of the entire project (including miscellaneous work like landscaping) completed by June 30, 2032.

Here's a look at what the new bridge will look like and some of the new features it will offer.

Gallery Credit: Nick Cooper