Metro Green Line Extension: Progress, challenges, and funding updates

“You know, I think we’re making pretty good progress, but I just want to caution that I’ve got a lot of scars on my back from this tunnel specifically and the project overall,” Jim Alexander said Jan. 8 at the Metropolitan Council Transportation Committee meeting.

Alexander, the director of the Metro Green Line Extension project, said he was pleased with last year’s progress on the massive 14.5-mile light rail project between SouthWest Station and Target Field. The project, formerly branded as Southwest LRT (SWLRT), is about 75% complete.

Delays and rising costs have prompted a series of reviews by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). The projected 2011 cost of $1.25 billion for construction grew to $2.74 billion in 2022 and $2.86 billion in 2023.

During the June 28, 2023, meeting of the Legislative Audit Commission, Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle informed members, “The cost overruns and delays of this project stem from the unseen and unknown, although thoroughly warned conditions of the Kenilworth Corridor. … This actual project is costing more because it was always going to cost more. It was under budgeted … and it simply is not a $2 billion project.”

The Green Line Extension endures heat tendered by a few Minneapolis DFL legislators and Republicans around the state. They have authored multiple bills that call for the reorganization of the Met Council and the funding and operation of future large-scale transit projects. The state has only spooned $30.3 million into the Metro Green Line Extension, its legal limit.

With slight adjustments, Alexander told the transportation panel that the project’s revised estimated budget of $2.86 billion would be the one sent to the Federal Transportation Administration for review. Federal dollars cover nearly half of the project’s cost. The balance has come mostly from Hennepin County. To fill the funding gap, the county and the Met Council agreed in August and September, respectively, to a capital funding grant plan to complete the project. Passenger service is expected to begin in 2027.

Alexander also asked the panel to recommend full Met Council approval of an update of its share of the agreement that would provide $100 million this year. The Met Council and Hennepin County Board are expected to approve their respective portions next week.

The state Legislature reconvenes on Monday, Feb. 12, two days before Valentine’s Day. Alexander and Zelle know that Cupid will not sway any of light rail’s political critics. They remain confident the Green Line Extension will move forward.

“We feel comfortable with that estimate and the timeline,” Alexander told the panel.

The 2023 construction season

By New Year’s Eve, nearly 10 miles of track had been laid from SouthWest Station to the St. Louis Park-Minneapolis boundary near the dead-end stubs of France Avenue.

All of the structural work on the project’s 29 bridges had been completed. One of them is unimposing and difficult to spot. But on May 1, 2023, the short bridge on the SouthWest Transit bus loop became the first span of the entire project used by fare-paying passengers.

The installation of electrical systems on 11 of the line’s 16 stations is essentially complete. In Eden Prairie, all of the overhead catenary poles, power cables and traction stations have been installed.

Weather permitting, Alexander commutes by bicycle to project headquarters in St. Louis Park. It is understandable why the executive in charge of a $2.8 billion transit project was pleased to report that the regional trail between Blake Road in Hopkins to Lake Street in Minneapolis has been re-opened. Other hike and bike segments will reopen over the next two years.

A short segment of the Minnesota River Bluffs Trail in Hopkins between 11th Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard has also re-opened. Detours in Hopkins connect to Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and beyond.

The notorious Kenilworth corridor north of Lake Street is moving forward, but, said Alexander, “We still have a long way to go.” Eighteen of 30 work cell stages of the two corridor structure have been completed. The most difficult work in the watery “pinch point” between the Cedar-Isles condominium complex and Twin Cities & Western Railroad track is slated for completion sometime in 2025.

Before work wraps up on the half-mile-long tunnel, the project intends to test its systems infrastructure from SouthWest Station to Beltline Boulevard Station in St. Louis Park and from Target Field to the West 21st Street Station near Cedar Lake in Minneapolis.

Questions & Answers about the wait

Before adjournment of the transportation committee, Met Council Member Barbara Vento asked about maintenance and security of the line before passenger service in 2027. Alexander said that the Met Council is evaluating security options that will be implemented when contractors hand over their construction zones to the council.

At-grade LRT crossing signals, like those at Technology and Viking drives and West 70th Street, will be functional and tested by the time light rail trains begin their testing and training runs.

At-grade railroad crossings that were re-aligned to accommodate light rail were replaced by the Met Council. The street crossing RR signals in Hopkins, St. Louis Park and Minneapolis have been fully tested and are operating.

The Eden Prairie factor

Eden Prairie, St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka have added significant contributions along the line. EP leads the pack. The Met Council’s Eden Prairie amenity ledger:

• Added back the Eden Prairie Town Center Station with federal and local funding. The station had been deferred from the project during the Dayton administration.
• Reconstructed SouthWest Station passenger waiting area.
• Upgraded decorative catenary poles supporting the electrical wires that power the light rail.
• Installed decorative street lighting, planter boxes, and landscaping on Town Center Drive.
• Enhanced fencing and railing.
• Added visual elements to the Prairie Center Drive, Valley View Road and Shady Oak/Highway 212 bridges, including decorative art and LED lights.
• An improved public plaza with landscaping, concrete pavers, additional benches, trash and recycling bins, bike pump station, electrical service, decorative pavement, bollards, and irrigation.
• Reconstructed Technology Drive.
• Upgraded and realigned sanitary sewer with new water main casings and increased the size of storm sewer pipes.
• Optum set aside a parcel of its campus on Shady Oak Road and Highway 62 for the construction of City West Station.

And this just in …

Among the conclusions of a Minnesota Office of the State Auditor report published in June was that the Met Council did not hold SWLRT’s general contractor, Lunda/C.S. McCrossan Joint Venture (LMJV), accountable on several key contracts.

Met Council Chair Zelle replied that OLA’s analysis was appreciated but noted that its recommendations: “do not align with (federal) guidance or construction law, are not appropriate for a project of this size and complexity, and in some instances could have contributed to additional delay.”

The Met Council and LMJV had already agreed to an alternative resolution dispute process to deal with change orders stemming from, say, unanticipated supply chain delays and bad weather conditions. The agreement enables work to continue while disputed costs and schedules are negotiated or settled by arbitration to avoid delays and possible litigation.

Last week, MinnPost reported that Michael Jannish, a Met Council engineer, filed a lawsuit against the Met Council in November. Reporter H. Jiahong Pan writes that Jannish, who oversaw contracts and change orders for SWLRT, claims that he was demoted because he questioned a number of change orders that council staff wanted approved. A pre-trial conference on the lawsuit is scheduled today, Thursday, Jan. 18.

Editor’s note: Writer Jeff Strate is also a member of the EPLN Board and served on the Community Advisory Committee of the SWLRT project.