Hennepin County commits funding for Bottineau LRT

Adam Voge//November 5, 2013//

Listen to this article

Hennepin County took a step forward on the Bottineau Transitway light rail project Tuesday.

The county’s Regional Railroad Authority voted 5-1 to approve $18.4 million for design of the $1 billion transit system, which would follow a 13-mile line from Minneapolis’ North Loop neighborhood to Brooklyn Park. Commissioner Jeff Johnson opposed, and Commissioner Randy Johnson was absent.

Joseph Gladke, of the county’s engineering and transit planning department, said the commitment would allow county staff to submit the project to the Federal Transit Administration for advancement. The two-year preliminary development stage includes finalizing the project’s environmental studies and moving forward with project design.

The county’s $18.4 million would be split over two years, and would pay for roughly 40 percent of early design work. The Counties Transit Improvement Board is expected to cover the other 60 percent of engineering costs, or about $27.6 million. Both groups’ early contributions would be credited to their total share of the entire project.

The FTA is expected to fund half the Bottineau LRT, with CTIB paying about 30 percent of the project’s cost. Hennepin County’s Regional Railroad Authority and the state would each foot 10 percent of the bill.

“I think we clearly have some momentum here,” said Commissioner Mike Opat. “It’s never easy to vote to spend somemoney hoping you’ll get it back, but we’ve done it before and we’ll do it again with this project.”

If approved by the FTA, engineering for Bottineau could begin in the first quarter of 2014. The line could be active as early as 2018.