May 28, 2008 6:47 pm US/Central
Met Council OKs LRT Route Through 'U' Campus
(WCCO)
A Metropolitan Council has approved the route for a new stretch of light rail between Minneapolis and St. Paul, and voted to discontinue further study of a northern route that the University of Minnesota preferred.
The new Central Corridor light rail line route will run right down Washington Avenue in Minneapolis to University Avenue and then into St. Paul. That would mean several blocks of Washington Avenue will be for pedestrians and trains only, no cars. That's an option the University of Minnesota doesn't like.
The University of Minnesota wanted the train to head north through Dinkytown along an old railroad track and stay off Washington Avenue, but their hopes were dashed on Wednesday.
"We will be putting no more staff time or resources into exploring this option," said Metropolitan Council President Peter Bell
The Metropolitan Council said that northern route would require a lot more work, and money.
"There's contaminated land. We'd have to tear down a bridge, we'd have to tear down some affordable housing," said Bell.
All that work would've delayed the project and put $450 million in federal funding in jeopardy, a risk the council didn't want to take.
"The University is a transit oriented community, and indeed we're gonna be almost 30 percent of the ridership on the line," said Kathleen O'Brien, Vice President of University Services.
The University of Minnesota worries that trains along the Washington Avenue route might shake up sensitive research equipment in nearby medical buildings. But the top concern is safety, and the traffic that would increase along river road and University Avenue.
"Safety of pedestrians and bicyclists in and around the campus are first and foremost for us," said O'Brien.
The Met Council said its studied lights and major intersections and they've got a plan to reroute traffic.
"Much of it will go on East River Road, both north and south," said Bell.
Construction on the 11-mile line could begin by 2011, and be up and running by 2014.
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