Minnesota Department of Transportation

A tale of twin citiesA commuter rail system for Minneapolis and St. Paul might never have been accomplished without collaboration among multiple public agencies, Gary Toushek learns. The various organizations with political will who had the determination to push ahead with plans for a commuter rail network for Minnesota look like geniuses today, as the cost of gasoline passes the psychological marker of $4 per gallon.  Although the funding was a tricky formula of ratios among three levels of government, the fact that vehicular traffic was beginning to saturate the transportation grid in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul was the underlying reason for Minnesota to support and eventually implement rail transit.In the 1980s the Twin Cities considered and developed a plan for a network of rail lines, including what they called the Hiawatha project, but for various reasons they just couldnÔÇÖt get the project going. It wasnÔÇÖt until 1998 that the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), the state legislature, and the local Metropolitan Council all agreed that a planned busway in Minneapolis should be switched to an LRT line, and for the next two years funding was the big challenge. Part of the hurdle was that the Federal Transit Administration requires that 50 percent of a projectÔÇÖs funding be in place before it allows the project to proceed to final design. The other part was that although then-Governor Jesse Ventura was a strong advocate of rail transit, his relationship with the state legislature was at times contentious, and it took some time before the state committed its share of fundingÔÇö$100 million.When Hiawatha finally got under way, construction of the first leg didnÔÇÖt take very long to complete, and commuters began using it in numbers that surpassed predictions. ÔÇ£The most rewarding day of my career was opening day for Hiawatha in 2004,ÔÇØ says Mike Schadauer, director of the Office of Transit for MnDOT. ÔÇ£I was at the downtown end of the line in Minneapolis, and there were people waiting in a line four blocks long to take a free ride on the train, and they just kept coming. It didnÔÇÖt take long before the special-event ridership in particular, such as going to and from football and baseball games, became phenomenal. In fact, overall ridership has already surpassed our initial predictions for 2020.ÔÇØ Even before Hiawatha was completed, the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA), a local organization, had been working diligently on feasibility and major investment studies for MinnesotaÔÇÖs first commuter rail line, the Northstar Project. They had permission from the FTA to enter the preliminary engineering stage of their project, and in 2001 Schadauer (previous to his current position) was brought in as manager to oversee MnDOTÔÇÖs development of the project. ÔÇ£We completed the preliminary engineering and made our funding proposal to the state legislature each year from 2001 through 2006,ÔÇØ he says. Until the Hiawatha LRT project proved itself, securing funding for the Northstar Commuter Rail Project was difficult. ÔÇ£But then, once everyone could see that riders were using Hiawatha, it was an important factor in getting Northstar funded.ÔÇØOf course, Ventura was having his problems, and his successor, Tim Pawlenty, who became governor in 2003, at first wasnÔÇÖt an advocate of commuter rail, but he eventually changed his mind and supported it. ÔÇ£One of the big factors that got us moving toward final design for Northstar was in 2005,ÔÇØ says Schadauer, ÔÇ£when the legislature proposed bonding for $37.5 millionÔÇöenough to make an application to the FTA to get it to final design stage. But we didnÔÇÖt get permission to proceed to final design from the FTA until September 2006.ÔÇØ By then the remainder of the stateÔÇÖs portion, another $60 million, was delivered, so when the project entered final design, all non-federal funding had been secured [the stateÔÇÖs share is $98.6 million, NCDA provided $51 million, Metropolitan CouncilÔÇÖs share is $5.4 million, and the FTA committed $162.4 million, for a total of $317.4 million]. The design was completed to the satisfaction of the FTA, which had worked with MnDOT on its commitment to the project, a full funding grant agreement. ÔÇ£But the FTA knew it would take a while to complete the necessary paperwork for that,ÔÇØ says Schadauer, ÔÇ£so in the meantime they gave us a ÔÇÿletter of no prejudice,ÔÇÖ which allowed us to begin construction. That was important to us, since we needed to begin by July 2007, otherwise weÔÇÖd lose a full season of construction and weÔÇÖd incur $10ÔÇô12 million in inflation costs.ÔÇØJust as critical was the construction schedule; work had to begin on the downtown Minneapolis commuter rail station where the Hiawatha LRT line was being extended, which is adjacent toÔÇöas well as under and overÔÇöparts of the new Minnesota Twins ballpark project. ÔÇ£So in order to mesh the construction schedules for both projects, we received permission to begin Northstar from the Federal Transit Administration before executing the full funding grant agreement, and weÔÇÖve been motoring like crazy ever since,ÔÇØ says Schadauer. The cooperation with the Minnesota Twins organization and the Minnesota Ballpark Authority has been tremendous; for example, their construction contractor is building a stairway/escalator/elevator connection between the LRT platform at street level and the commuter rail platform, which is one level below, so it will appear to be part of the fa├ºade of the ballpark.In his new capacity as director of the MnDOT Office of Transit, Schadauer leads a team of people providing aid and technical advice to Greater Minnesota transit agencies. The next LRT project, Central Corridor Light Rail Transit, budgeted at $890 million and in the preliminary engineering stages, will join the two downtowns of the Twin Cities, which will provide an effective rail connection to the Hiawatha and Northstar lines. ÔÇ£NorthstarÔÇÖs been a major collaborative effort,ÔÇØ he summarizes. ÔÇ£MnDOT may be the government agency responsible for it, but it wouldnÔÇÖt have proceeded without the strong continuing efforts of NCDA and the Metropolitan Council, which includes Metro Transit, the operating agency for commuter rail, LRT and buses in Minneapolis and St. Paul. WeÔÇÖve now created project offices for each of the three rail projects that bring together the project partners, including consultants to design and manage. This has helped build relationships among these agencies that will carry into the future.ÔÇØ