urbanMSP

Ped bridges are being considered for the 63rd Ave N and Bass Lake Rd stations:

http://metrocouncil.org/getdoc/8280b967 ... ation.aspx

Most interesting part of the presentation: apparently CR81 is a house moving route and needs to maintain a certain vertical clearance of these potential bridges. Is there a map of house moving routes in the TC? Makes sense that they exist but never really thought about designated routes.

I found MnDOT's map of trunk highway house moving routes, but could find nothing at the county or local level.

(EDIT) I also sent an email to a few people I know at Hennepin County DOT to see if such a map exists at the county level.

Municipal consent was approved 9-3. Yang, Cano and Gordon were the no votes, though other council members voiced continued concerns with the 6 lane cross-section. Even if it was only a protest vote, I'm proud of Blong today.

I hope WedgeLive cuts a YouTube clip of Blong's speech on this. It was - by far - the best thing I have ever heard from him. I knew Gordon was going to be a no vote on this, and I appreciate it. But I was so pleasantly surprised by Blong Yang today.

I smell a Title VI lawsuit. Our whole transit planning process is seriously overdue for a legal civil rights challenge, but this line and section is particularly egregious.

From the FTA's own guide on title VI as it relates to transit planning
http://www.fta.dot.gov/documents/Title_ ... f_1964.ppt
(Slide 16) "Examples of Actions with Potentially Disparate Impacts"

Planning a fixed guideway project that travels through predominantly minority communities but does not include stations in these communities.

I'd say this line very clearly meets that requirement, and the fact that one of the few stations serving that community is dangerously inaccessible due to all these traffic lanes might make a pretty good argument.

(Slide 17) "When can recipients take actions that have disparate impacts?"

In the cases when the policy is supported by a “substantial legitimate justification” and
There are no comparably effective alternative practices that would result in less disparate impacts and
The justification for the action is not a pretext for discrimination.

There are very clearly alternatives to placing the station in the middle of a zillion lanes of traffic that aren't being considered here. The justification for the extra traffic lanes relies on faulty predictive models for traffic growth into the future, so ...

I'd disagree that you'd be able to push a lawsuit regarding Slide 16. There are other Federal laws that address alternatives that are or are not "reasonable and prudent". Because of the ROW requirements, a line going deeper into the Northside was not considered "reasonable and prudent".

Where you might have a case is with Slide 17.

I meant more about the alternative being in the design of the road around the stop or the stop being on the side of the road and not in the middle.

Few speak at park LRT hearing.

http://post.mnsun.com/2016/02/19/few-sp ... t-hearing/

Details on the impact on the park it's being run through in Golden Valley.

What would it take to cobble together funding for the portion extending west along Olson Hwy to Penn Ave Station? Could Minneapolis redirect some of its Nicollet TIF funding to this project instead? I bet $200 million could do it.

As a point of clarification, does the Nicollet TIF funding language the city got approved from the state allow that money to be spent on transit generally, or only a Nicollet/Central streetcar?

Not sure exactly, but the parcels that are generating the TIF are all located along the alignment of the Nic streetcar, so it would be a hard sell to move it to something that didn't directly serve those parcels.

About as hard of a sell as securing TIF for parcels with big projects already under construction? I'm not saying it was a great idea for Bottineau, and a quick search shows the legislation only allowed it to be on parcels on Nicollet or Central and only spent on the streetcar. And it was only $60m anyway.

Planners recommending closing 39 1/2 street crossing on Blue Line extension in Robbinsdale.

http://post.mnsun.com/2016/04/19/closed ... -crossing/

It will reduce at grade street conflicts.

I'm not saying it was a great idea for Bottineau, and a quick search shows the legislation only allowed it to be on parcels on Nicollet or Central and only spent on the streetcar. And it was only $60m anyway.

I wonder how difficult it would be to pass legislation redirecting it to Midtown.

New cost estimates are out: $1.536 Billion
Breakdown is:
FTA: $726 Million
CTIB: $464 Million
HCRRA: $150 Million
State: $150 Million
Henn Cty: $4 Million
MnDot: $8 Million
Brooklyn Park: $8 Million

Final EIS is likely to be finished this month.

http://www.metrocouncil.org/getdoc/893e ... ation.aspx

New cost estimates are out: $1.536 Billion
Breakdown is:
FTA: $726 Million
CTIB: $464 Million
HCRRA: $150 Million
State: $150 Million
Henn Cty: $4 Million
MnDot: $8 Million
Brooklyn Park: $8 Million

Final EIS is likely to be finished this month.

http://www.metrocouncil.org/getdoc/893e ... ation.aspx

What "% of engineering" is this estimate? Asking for a friend who wants to know what multiplier to assign to this number for "unknowns."

2!.....construction inflation, obviously.

2% engineering or $2B?

The presentation linked above indicates the previous cost estimates were based on 15% engineering (page 9). Cost estimates include the standard 30% contingency.

They are now at the 30% engineering phase, which is when you begin submitting FTA applications and whatnot. It's when the project becomes "serious" in the eyes of the feds. The current cost estimate is on page 29.