Green Line Extension - Southwest LRT

Roads - Rails - Sidewalks - Bikeways
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Tiller
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Tiller » May 15th, 2019, 3:28 am

If we were to build (or if we built) our light rail system mostly in a series of cut-and-cover tunnels, we could prevent cracks by making them climate controlled. 8-)

Qhaberl
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Qhaberl » May 15th, 2019, 4:20 am

Might be an obvious question, but does the full weekend closure have to do with the amount of time it takes to repair the tracks? Could the repairs be done quicker if there were more manpower?


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DanPatchToget
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby DanPatchToget » May 15th, 2019, 8:10 am

What are the chances the tree cutting in the Kenilworth Corridor is delayed? A petition with 2,900 signatures was delivered to Walz’s office asking to delay the tree cutting until funding is 100% certain (even though at this point it’s very near certain we’ll get the funding).

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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Qhaberl » May 15th, 2019, 10:35 am

I can actually respect that. Why is the funding not 100% yet? I would favor not cutting trees until we have the written agreement from the FTA. Why have we not gotten the 100% guarantee?


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Qhaberl
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Qhaberl » May 15th, 2019, 10:38 am

What are the chances the tree cutting in the Kenilworth Corridor is delayed? A petition with 2,900 signatures was delivered to Walz’s office asking to delay the tree cutting until funding is 100% certain (even though at this point it’s very near certain we’ll get the funding).
Near certainty is great, but I want the 100%Guarantee. I don’t exactly trust the current administration. It would be very easy for me to imagine and the administration suddenly saying “we are not funding this.”


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DanPatchToget
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby DanPatchToget » May 15th, 2019, 11:02 am

Every transit project that has reached the milestone Southwest LRT has has received their federal funding. And if what the Met Council says is true in that delaying the tree cutting could impact the federal funding commitment, then we’re just going to have to cut down the trees and have faith in the feds and their odd policies. Worst case scenario we just plant new trees, because contrary to what some believe this wouldn’t be an irreversible mistake.

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VacantLuxuries
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby VacantLuxuries » May 15th, 2019, 12:56 pm

It would be a major lawsuit if they did, and I would want us to have a half completed line at that point for us to use as evidence that we were mistreated.

Besides, the Green Line funding came from the FTA two years after construction began. Two years from now is 2021. And while I'm certainly not going to argue for complacency, we were dealt this awful administration by 100,000 voters in WI, MI, and PA. To take it as a guarantee that Trump's FTA is going to oversee this is short-sighted.

Even if we're stuck with Trump for another four years, there's no guarantee Mitch McConnell's wife will have a job in 2021. Especially if Congress over the next few years really starts leaning into its oversight authorities and starts demanding that funds they authorized get spent.

I've said this elsewhere, but really, Kenilworth is nice, but it's something we planted over a freight rail yard. It's not a magic forest. It's not an old growth forest. Absolute worst case scenario, we plant another one and it's back in 20 years. And to throw everything we've done away on the chance that maybe the feds will open themselves to another court fight that they're statistically batting horribly on, is really, really dumb.

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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby HiawathaGuy » May 15th, 2019, 2:25 pm

Not to mention that they've started removing trees in Eden Prairie already, along Flying Cloud Drive in front of the Comfort Inn, as well as near the Southwest Transit Station.

People can sign all the petitions they want, but this line is already years behind schedule... I don't have the patience or the time to wait for these Limousine Liberals to stop the train from following the Kenilworth Trail. I think the Walz administration feels the same. Although lovely Dibble seems to always have his signature on anything that deals with this part of his constituency...

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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby HiawathaGuy » May 15th, 2019, 2:31 pm

Might be an obvious question, but does the full weekend closure have to do with the amount of time it takes to repair the tracks? Could the repairs be done quicker if there were more manpower?
Can we have non-topic comments put into Anything Goes, or have a catch-all Transit area?

DanPatchToget
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby DanPatchToget » May 15th, 2019, 2:48 pm

Might be an obvious question, but does the full weekend closure have to do with the amount of time it takes to repair the tracks? Could the repairs be done quicker if there were more manpower?
Can we have non-topic comments put into Anything Goes, or have a catch-all Transit area?
I would say that goes in Public Transit News and Current Happenings.

Qhaberl
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Qhaberl » May 15th, 2019, 4:31 pm

Did not know that about the greenline not receiving its funding until two years after construction started. It sounds like starting construction before full funding is in place is standard practice.

So a petition was sent to the governor, what’s next? When are the trees actually supposed to be removed?


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commissioner
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby commissioner » May 16th, 2019, 12:51 am

Forgive me but I don't have a lot of sympathy for the residents of Kenworth in this. If there was historical value to the trees or the land, I MIGHT have some sympathy, but 1,000 trees in a pretty wooded area isn't going to matter too much. aren't they going to replant as much as they can anyway?

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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Qhaberl » May 16th, 2019, 6:14 am

My opinion: totally understand not having much sympathy. This group of people has been trying to stop the project from the very beginning. I feel like the project has made some compromises in their favor; the shallow tunnel that will keep trains running basically underground.


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lordmoke
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby lordmoke » May 17th, 2019, 1:48 pm

Part of the Cedar Lake Trail IN DOWNTOWN will also be closed for two years:
https://metrocouncil.org/Transportation ... 90517.aspx

This is getting absolutely ridiculous. They've done a terrible, terrible job preparing people for these trail closures, and the detours they're providing are all convoluted and only moderately useful.

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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby SurlyLHT » May 17th, 2019, 1:53 pm

Yeah, we talked about this last week. The bike detour isn't terrible and it is the edge of Downtown

lordmoke
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby lordmoke » May 17th, 2019, 3:20 pm

Ah, I must have missed this one. I've been trying to follow SWLRT construction news as closely as I can, and apparently that's not good enough to hear about everything. This trail is going to be amazing when it's done, but this is going to be such a painful few years.

SurlyLHT
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby SurlyLHT » May 17th, 2019, 5:03 pm

The trail connection between the Cedar Lake Trail and the Sculpture Garden is a pretty good kept secret. It'll be nice if they fixed it up a bit and maybe made bike improvements between Loring Park and Downtown.

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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Anondson » May 17th, 2019, 6:24 pm


Multimodal
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Multimodal » May 18th, 2019, 7:46 am

I had no idea steel(?) rails could be so flexible. As my partner said, “it looks like a wet noodle!”

Tom H.
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Re: Southwest LRT (Green Line Extension)

Postby Tom H. » May 19th, 2019, 4:55 pm

There is a crane on-site at Southwest Station, which is being used to drive sheet piles up against the US-212 exit ramp. I'm assuming that will be a retaining wall allowing the LRT tracks to leave the station and snake around the Elevate apartment building and then on to the Prairie Center Drive overpass.


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