The ice that will hold up a village of art shanties on Lake Harriet in January is the same ice that has spent the last two winters breaking up the walking path on the west side of Bde Maka Ska.
In August 2026, Houston Engineering finished a feasibility study for the Park Board. It found that trail damage along the west shore of Bde Maka Ska comes mainly from ice heaving. A frozen lake expands, pushes into the bank and scrapes up ridges of shoreline and lakebed. A mile away on Lake Harriet, the Park Board's records describe a stone wall from the Works Progress Administration era. It is breaking down fastest at the waterline, where freeze-thaw cycles and moving ice wear on the masonry.
So the two lakes share one problem and two repair projects. Each repair plan is a bet on how to live with winter ice at the water's edge.
Why a winter with little snow is hard on the shore
Snow on top of lake ice works like a blanket. Without it, the ice swings with the air temperature. It shrinks in the cold, cracks, refills with water, freezes again, and then expands outward into whatever sits at the shore. The Minnesota DNR describes the same process: expanding ice can shove soil into ridges along the shoreline, especially when there is no snow cover.
The Bde Maka Ska feasibility study ties the damage to recent weather:
"The annual snowfall depth totals in the Twin Cities for the 2024-2025 and the 2023-2024 winter seasons were less than half of the total snowfall depth in the 2022-2023 winter season meaning that the lake has become more prone to ice heaving in recent years. MPRB has seen trail damage increase the past two winters."
On a site visit on January 7, 2026, engineers found ice ridges along several sections of the shore. In one place the ice had eroded the bank so badly that a tree and part of the trail fell toward the lake. The study also notes a water-quality cost. When the ice pulls back, it carries sediment and debris into the lake and leaves steeper banks behind.
The damaged stretch starts near West 36th Street and runs north past West 32nd Street. The study puts the project shoreline at about 2,755 feet.
Lake Harriet's wall has been losing to the ice for decades
Lake Harriet shows what happens when a hard edge meets the same force. The Park Board's 2016 assessment of the WPA stone walls includes a Lake Harriet "Shore Protection Wall" drawing dated January 1939. It describes a poured concrete core and footing with a stone veneer and cap. Inspections in 2016 found the wall faces and caps in uniformly poor condition. Some segments had already collapsed or were leaning hard toward the lake.
The wall runs along the western shoreline. The Park Board held its September 23 open house on that shore near West 42nd Street, south of Bread & Pickle.
The wall repair options on the project page range from rebuilding a rigid wall to replacing it with something softer that can move:
| Draft option | Preliminary concept estimate |
|---|---|
| Cast-in-place concrete cantilever wall | $1,299,700 |
| Sheet-pile wall with decorative cap | $824,000 |
| Gabion-basket wall | $911,300 |
| Geocells with riprap and vegetated stabilization | $1,067,200 |
The concrete, gabion and geocell totals leave out the walking trail. Replacing 1,600 feet of trail is estimated separately at $275,000. These are early concept numbers, not an approved budget. The Lake Harriet Shoreline Repairs page still lists the project in pre-design. Its planning tasks say the work would likely be phased over several years, and keeping the existing WPA walls is one of the strategies under study.
Bde Maka Ska's plan moves the trail back from the ice
At Bde Maka Ska, where there is no historic wall to keep, the engineers lean toward letting the shore flex. The study's first three concepts were a vegetated shoreline, vegetation combined with riprap or hard armor, and vegetation combined with geogrid soil lifts. The preferred fourth alternative mixes those methods, adds turtle habitat and realigns the trail where it can. The reasoning is simple. The study names moving infrastructure away from the bank as one of the main fixes for ice heaving, and moving the trail leaves room to regrade the shoreline.
The study also points out a weakness in planting alone. A vegetated bank stays at high risk of ice heaving until the plants are fully established. The combined approach is meant to cover those early winters.
The full preferred plan, including trail realignment and repairs, is estimated at $2,055,700. The Park Board has $1,000,000 for shoreline construction, and trail costs are excluded from that budget, so the engineers drew up a phasing plan to fit the money available. That means the plan is roughly half funded today.
Two lakes, two construction calendars
Both projects use Met Council regional funds, and Lake Harriet's also draws on other outside sources. They are on different schedules, though. Here is the order of events from now through 2028, based on the Park Board's published timelines:
- November 12, 2026. Open house on the Bde Maka Ska natural shoreline options in the Terrace Room at St. Mary's Greek Orthodox Church, 3450 Irving Ave. S, as reported by Southwest Voices.
- Winter 2026–2027. Construction documents for the Lake Harriet wall. Separately, bidding and award for the Lake Harriet North Beach improvements, which Southwest Voices reported will add ADA-compliant beach access and retaining walls to protect existing trees.
- Spring 2027. North Beach construction is expected to start, according to the same Southwest Voices report, and the Lake Harriet wall goes out for bids.
- Summer and fall 2027. Lake Harriet wall construction, listed on the project page as Phase 1.
- 2027 at Bde Maka Ska. Design runs through the winter and spring, construction documents in summer and public bidding in fall.
- Spring–summer 2028. Bde Maka Ska shoreline construction, with road closures tentatively planned along West Bde Maka Ska Parkway. The Lake Harriet page lists no road closures.
That leaves at least two more winters of ice against the west shore at Bde Maka Ska before any machinery arrives, and one more at Lake Harriet.
The same ice, this winter
The ice that wears down the shoreline also makes the lakes' best winter events possible. DNR records show Lake Harriet froze over on December 12, 2025 and went out on March 31, 2026. Bde Maka Ska also went out on March 31, 2026. The DNR notes that observers define "ice out" differently, so the dates are approximate.
Art Shanty Projects returns to Bdé Umáŋ / Lake Harriet from January 16 to February 7, 2027, with more than 40 projects. Public hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. Admission is free, with a suggested donation of $10 to $20 at the gate, according to the program announcement published by Southwest Voices. The 2027 lineup includes Mussel Beach, Jacob Carrigan's outdoor gym with barbells made from invasive species. The Opticon 2 camera obscura returns from 2020, and the Free Store Shanty is back in a new structure built by Trevor Zapiecki, handing out gently used outerwear to visitors who come underdressed. Kicksleds are available as mobility aids during all program hours.
On the shanty village's second weekend, the Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival takes over the ice on Saturday, January 23, 2027, from noon to 4 p.m. The Linden Hills Neighborhood Council lists food trucks and a free shuttle from 3033 Excelsior Blvd.
If you walk out to the shanties this January, the west shore will be in view. On the Bde Maka Ska side, the engineers' preferred plan would add plantings, armor and turtle habitat, and move the trail back where the ground allows. That repair is now scheduled for spring 2028.
If you follow how projects like these change the lakes, the paths and the blocks around them, Sally English keeps a close eye on the Chain of Lakes and is glad to talk about what the 2027 and 2028 shoreline work means for the homes along the west shore. Let's Connect.
