The Metro Green Line Extension project faces an estimated funding deficit of $240 million, which will be equally shared by Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Council. The project’s current estimated final cost is around $2.7 billion. Note: The Metro Green Line Extension project is also commonly referred to as Southwest Light Rail Transit (SWLRT). The Met Council announced in a Monday afternoon news release that the funds will be dedicated to the remaining capital and startup costs of the 14.5-mile line that will connect Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Hopkins, St. Louis Park and downtown Minneapolis. Unanticipated constrution challenges and costs associated…
Author: Jeff Strate
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Jeff Strate
An Eden Prairie resident since 1994, Jeff has served as an organizer for local open-space initiatives and get-out-the-vote parks referenda. He has also served on the Eden Prairie Human Rights and Diversity Commission, conservation area task forces, the Southwest Light Rail Community Advisory Committee and the Board of Directors of the Minnesota Land Trust. Jeff studied journalism and mass communication at the U of MN and has been a producer/writer and occasional on-camera figure in the Twin Cities, New York, Boston, and Trenton. Jeff has written for websites and magazines and has produced award-winning access programing through Southwest Community Television (SWTV).
DeShaw and Hanninen were among the 1% of School of Rock’s 62,000 performance program students selected for this year’s AllStars tours.
John LeBlanc carries a handful of rooted garlic mustard plants as he directs the Central Middle School bus to park on a shady loop. Science teacher Jackie Campbell and her eighth graders disembark into a woodsy, rustic retreat from another era. Their end-of-school-year field trip would help restore native habitat along a nature trail at Camp Eden Wood in north-central Eden Prairie. It would also contribute to the sweat equity terms of a $21,500 Natural Resources Grant from Hennepin County. Some 20 Central Middle School students would pull garlic mustard from areas that had been cleared of common buckthorn. Garlic…
A critical evaluation of the Southwest Light Rail (SWLRT) project’s oversight of its major contractor was issued last week by the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA). The second of two reports slated for this year of the massive, delayed project holds that the Metropolitan Council “has not adequately enforced” aspects of key construction contracts, does not have adequate documentation to support some of its decisions, and did not provide sufficient mechanisms for the council to enforce those contracts. The 14.5-mile light rail line that will connect Eden Prairie, Minnetonka, Hopkins, St. Louis Park and Minneapolis was slated back in…
Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce President Pat MulQueeny unzipped a black case shaped like a ukulele. A few steps in front of him, a breeze played with a polyester ribbon being unrolled for dignitaries to hold. They were lined up in the bright sun on the new bus loop at SouthWest Station. Wednesday, May 31, marked the ceremonial opening of the station’s passenger waiting room and bus loop. On May 1, SouthWest Transit commuters began boarding buses there to become the first to use any aspect of the massive Metro Green Line Extension Project. Light rail riders will begin sharing…
A Saturday morning breakfast of flapjacks drenched with maple syrup while seated beneath a full-size replica of the Spirit of St. Louis attracted aviation buffs from around the Twin Cities to a hangar at Flying Cloud Airport. Wings of the North (WOTN) runs four pancake breakfasts a year: one in the spring, one in the fall and two in midsummer. The July 22 and 23 breakfasts are part of AirExpo 2023. Billed as Minnesota’s premier aviation event, more than 30 vintage and modern aircraft and aviation heroes are expected to set down in Eden Prairie. Volunteer-driven, nonprofit Wings of the North…
SouthWest Station’s new passenger waiting room and bus loop opened for passengers on Monday, May 1. SouthWest Transit buses began loading riders shortly after 6 a.m. Eden Prairie’s SouthWest Station became the first Green Line Extension facility to serve transit customers. Light rail trains are slated to carry passengers in 2027. This two-minute video leads with scenes from the new station’s first morning and concludes with an animated video of what the entire complex will look like in 2027. Click here to view the video.
The three-month-long rebuild of the eastbound Highway 212 off-ramp at SouthWest Station that began on April 10 marked the launch of the final season of heavy construction work on light rail in Eden Prairie. The 14.5-mile Metro Green Line Extension project has famously endured significant cost overruns and delays, political hyperbole, and clickbait headlines. The big delays have been along a short stretch of the Kenilworth Corridor in Minneapolis, between the Lake Street Bridge and a bit north of Cedar Lake Parkway. A tunnel is being built through a “pinch point” and difficult soils for two LRT tracks that will…
Reservations are currently being taken for the May round of this year’s Green Line Extension LRT construction site walking tours. The tours will be led by knowledgeable project office staff. Each walk is limited to 20 people. The free guided tours will visit one or more construction sites. Safety vests and hard hats will be provided. Although additional walks are planned throughout the summer, EPLN recommends registering for the May walks as soon as possible. They tend to fill up fast. For additional information, contact: James.Mockovciak@metrotransit.org Registration includes an agreement to a number of conditions. Click here to sign up…
A year ago, Anna Sorokina and her daughter Tamila celebrated Orthodox Easter with other Ukrainian refugees in a dormitory in Prague, Czech Republic. This past Sunday, Sorokina attended an early Easter Service at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis. Tamila slept in. The 11-year-old is a fifth grader at Forest Hills Elementary School. The two moved from Prague to Eden Prairie in October. Among their new friends are Charlie and Lynn Speikers and the parishioners of Eden Prairie Assembly of God Church on Duck Lake Trail. “It’s a very nice community,” says Anna. Anna met the Speikers and…