Legislation Creates New Oversight Provisions for Light Rail Projects
New legislation aims to keep light rail projects within their budgets and on schedule by adding new oversight measures.
In this year’s transportation budget bill, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) was given a new oversight role in light rail transit projects.
This comes as the Southwest Light Rail Extension runs almost a decade behind schedule and $1 billion over budget.
Work is also continuing on the estimated $3 billion Bottineau Blue Line project. The 13.4-mile rail line is planned to run from downtown Minneapolis through Robbinsdale and Crystal and Brooklyn Park.
Sen. Scott Dibble (DFL-Minneapolis), who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, told CCX News he wanted to see changes to light rail management after seeing the issues with the Southwest line.
Earlier in the legislative session, he pushed for measures that would place light rail projects under MnDOT’s purview rather than the Metropolitan Council.
MnDOT “actually does a really good job managing really large, really expensive projects, managing for costs, managing for deadlines, innovation, that sort of thing,” Dibble said. “That was strenuously resisted by the Metropolitan Council and MnDOT wasn’t a big fan of the idea either.”
In this year’s transportation budget bill, the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation was given a new oversight role in light rail transit projects.
‘A Good Compromise’
So, as a compromise, Dibble added new provisions that give MnDOT what he called a “highly leveraged oversight role so that all of their expertise can be brought to bear with some teeth, but not in a way that creates some sort of unnecessary complexity around who the project owner is.”
According to Dibble, this new legislation requires that MnDOT be involved in developing a project’s scope, contracts and schedules.
“I think it’s a good compromise, and it will, I think, as we contemplate the Blue Line Extension up to the north and western suburbs, we’ll have a much, much better product,” Dibble said.
Dibble said he hopes MnDOT officials can act as “another entity that’s accountable to the public — through the legislature, through the governor.”
A spokesperson from The Metropolitan Council issued the following statement:
“As part of our commitment of building and maintaining trust while working on some of the state’s most complex transportation projects, it’s important we continually collaborate with our partners to provide expertise where appropriate. The Met Council and MnDOT have a long history of collaboration and expertise and this language provides additional responsibilities and formalizes the existing partnership. It’s a value we support.”
Sen. Scott Dibble speaks on the Senate floor on May 6.
Anti-Displacement Measures
During the previous legislative session, $50 million was allocated to the Blue Line project.
This year, $10 million of those funds were reallocated to help with anti-displacement efforts related to the project.
