ST. PAUL, Minn. — With one senator calling the project “a boondoggle of historic proportions,” a bipartisan group of Minnesota state legislators is calling for an audit of a light rail project that has soared in cost and is now projected to open four years late.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports the legislators are calling for the review of the Southwest light rail project, a 14.5-mile extension of the Metro Green Line to St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie. Their request came a day after an announcement that extension — the largest public infrastructure project in state history — is now expected to cost $2.65 billion to $2.75 billion and is not likely to begin operation before 2027. Just a year ago, the price was estimated at $2 billion, with completion in 2023.
State Sen. Scott Newman (R-Hutchinson, Minn.), along with calling the project a “boondoggle,” said in a statement, “Words barely capture what a monumental disaster it has been.” The chair of the Senate Transportation Finance and Policy Committee, Newman said a bill calling for an audit will receive an early hearing. The ranking minority member of the committee, Sen. Scott Dibble (Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party-Minneapolis), said he will introduce legislation calling for an inquiry. He called the latest estimates for the project “jaw dropping and appalling.”
The Metropolitan Council, the regional governmental body that oversees the Metro Transit system, revealed the new cost and timeline for the project on Wednesday, with Chairman Charlie Zelle saying finding money to pay for the increasing cost “is a puzzle to be solved.”
The Star-Tribune reports officials say three factors account for most of the increase: construction of a tunnel in Minneapolis Kenilworth Corridor, which poses significant challenges because of limited clearances and soil issues; the addition of a station at Eden Prairie Town Center; and construction of a mile-long, $93 million crash protection wall separating the light-rail line from BNSF tracks [see “Digest: New MBTA subway cars have derailed …,” Trains News Wire, March 24, 2021].
It is the same on every large project no matter if it is rail , highway , water works , or airports. Here in NH the I-93 expansion from 2 to 4 lanes from the Mass border to Manchester was quoted as less than 100 million. It was recently completed at just about 1 billion. Look at the Big Dig in Boston that went from 1 billion to 14 billion. Read about the cost overruns on the Purple line in Maryland of several billion. The Green line extension in Boston built on 6 miles of existing rights of way went from 1 billion to over 4 billion until they put a halt on it and cut out all the gravy and dropped it back to less than 3 billion but it’s not finished yet. The interchange of I-393 , I-495 and I-95 in Northern Virginia went from 275 million to 1.6 billion. The replacement I-95 bridge over the Potomac river was picked to be a new bridge because it would only cost 900 million while a tunnel would be 1.1 billion. Completion of the new bridge eventually was 4.7 billion. Many costs rise with every affected municipality wanting their own gravy in the form of all nearby streets , roads and utilities being upgraded.
12-14 years ago I was an outspoken critic of this project during its public review and approval phase. I spoke up at various public forums and approval meetings. It was obvious even then that this project was an absolute boondoggle with contrived traffic/ridership numbers and wishful thinking construction estimates. One example was the 21st Street deep in a residential Kenwood neighborhood which was projected to be a huge traffic generator on account of a massive car park that would be built next to it. Imagine how the residents of this bucolic neighborhood would have fought that. Another example was the Royalston Ave/Farmers Market station was forecast to be one of the top 2-3 ridership stations on account of bus transfers. Of course I was ignored by the political class that wanted this, their pet project, to proceed to construction. They and the project consultants should be held accountable and sued for this nearly $3 billion disaster.
Sounds like scope creep to me. Who approved the project changes? They are the ones who should be audited.
As for paying one’s way, mobility in any form is not free. Car, bus, transit or air. They are all funded by different means and at the whims or requests of the paying constituents. And fans of one always say the other gets a better break.
Mr. Kyle – I’ve lived in St Paul all 65 yrs of my life commuted to work in Mpls on the bus or later light rail for 25 yrs until covid hit I also own a car. No longer any heavy rush hour to speak of in the Twin Cities people have embraced the new options made available to them. I take issue when others (not yourself) who disparage transit as a waste of taxpayer dollars while the auto-centric are failing to pay their share to sustain their own mobility.
It was only $300-some million to start the 40 mile Northstar (heavy-rail) commuter line. Thought the whole idea behind light rail was lower costs.
– Ed Kyle
The track speed in the area where the wall is built is about 25MPH for the BNSF/TC&W
I’m kinda curious about these “crash protection walls” separating the light rail from the heavy rail. So, it’s fairly robust? Does it leave the light rail completely unaffected even if two big, monstrous freight trains crash head on at 60mph?
We definitely don’t need to spend more money on freeways in the Twin Cities or nationally with the new work from home, internet shopping, home entertainment streaming lifestyle that has developed & been embraced by the American public. But if YOU never use transit but drive everywhere you probably would see it as a waste. How much money has been siphoned from the Federal Treasury since 2008 when the Hwy Trust Fund which was to make hwys self sufficient went bust? Over $100 billion because drivers don’t think they should pay for their “freeways” literally. How about we end the drivers free ride & reimburse the Treasury raise the gas tax to match the pump price to offset the ballooning deficit it has helped create. By the way criminals have cars too & there are now homeless people/panhandlers in your precious Xanadu suburbs.
Galen, have you driven in Twin Cities traffic? I live in Chicago area and Twin Cities traffic seems worse to me. They’ve starved those highways by comparison with other places I’ve driven, it seems to me. I’m all for the toll road solution, since I drive them every day in Illinois. Electronic tolling makes them easy to use, and people should pay for their use.
I live in Eden Prairie, MN where this “disaster” LR projects terminates. Most of the cities this goes through didn’t even want this project, but were forced to accept it, because Minneapolis politics and politicians rule over MN. This is a disaster on monumental proportions and it’s not done yet. With another “4 years of delays” you know their “estimate of an additional 750 million” will turn out to be over double that. In the end, you’ll have a 3.5 BILLION DOLLAR, 14 mile, “mobile homeless shelter”, because that’s whose going to get the most use out of this. Instead of spending this 3.5 billion dollars that might see a few thousand people a day get use from, it could’ve been used on the highway system and benefitted upwards of a million people or more per day. This is “another bridge to nowhere” and MN legislators should be the laughing stock of America. We’re selling and moving before this access allows crime, car jacking, and panhandling to become rampant.
Once contractors get government contracts, they realize no one is watching the hen house. The Metro Council should pay for the overages with their money.
Amen