In a rare and overwhelming display of bipartisanship, the Minnesota Senate and House of Representatives passed virtually identical bills requiring the Office of the Legislative Auditor (OLA) to review the Met Council’s management and construction of Southwest LRT.
The Senate bill, authored by Sen. Scott Dibble, passed unanimously, and the House bill, authored by Rep. Frank Hornstein, passed 129 to 1. The bills will likely be reconciled by concurrence, since they have no substantive differences, and sent to Gov. Tim Walz, who supports the audit.
The legislation reflects widespread dismay, and in some cases outrage, over a four-year delay in the project, and a price tag that has now reached $2.75 billion. The project was originally sold to the public at $975 million.
Among other things, the legislation calls for:
- Review of the reasons for delays and cost increases;
- Review of Met Council’s management of schedule and cost; estimating, contracting, negotiating and hiring practices; safety practices; change-order processes and use of contingency funds;
- Examination of whether there was sufficient Met Council scrutiny of route decisions and design choices that required the costly changes;
- An inquiry into potential financial impacts on Hennepin County (which stands to absorb cost overruns);
- A cost-benefit study. One was never conducted, although SWLRT — even before the recent cost increases — is the costliest public works project in Minnesota history;
- Protection from retaliation for vendors, contractors and Met Council employees who participate in the review;
- An appropriation of $200,000 for the OLA to conduct the study.
Officials are fast-tracking the bill, which will go into effect the day it passes, because they want to see the OLA reports as soon as possible.
Says Hornstein: “The legislature is united in demanding a full accounting of the cost overruns and delays related to SWLRT. The legislative auditor is independent and non-partisan, and I am confident that they will produce a timely and valuable report. We should have preliminary results in just a few months.”
Tunnel visions
According to a Star Tribune editorial, Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle attributes cost and schedule problems to “a decision driven by nearby neighborhoods to run the line below grade near the Kenilworth Trail, which necessitated a costly tunnel; and the protective wall required by BNSF Railway, which uses nearby heavy rail to transport flammables….”
HLP readers will recall that the tunnel became necessary because of the failure to move the freight rail to St. Louis Park, which had long been promised by Hennepin County. Thus, two SWLRT rails would have to run through a 56-foot-wide bottleneck near the Cedar-Isles Condominiums along with the existing freight rail, and bike and pedestrian paths. But that space is too narrow to accommodate all those transitways on the same grade, so the light rail would have to go underground.
Once tunneling became the only feasible option, many area residents urged that a “deep tunnel” be bored below the water table. They preferred it to the “cut-and-cover” tunnel ultimately chosen by the Met Council. A deep tunnel would have avoided damage to the condos and the possibility of a catastrophe caused by an LRT-freight ethanol accident. The latter concern is what prompted BNSF to require the $93 million protective wall cited by Zelle.
Where will the buck stop?
Since all other funders have bowed out of the project, the additional $1 billion appears to be the responsibility of Hennepin County taxpayers.
In an email to Hill and Lake Press, Marion Greene, who chairs the county board, wrote that transit projects are complex, and transparency is critically important adding: “I respect the Minnesota House’s decision to ask the Office of the Legislative Auditor to review decisions by the Metropolitan Council, the agency overseeing this project. Hennepin County has shown our commitment to the Green Line Extension, providing more than $1 billion to the project, making up nearly 90 percent of the funding share. The county has tried with much due diligence to have oversight when possible.”
Greene, however, is one of five voting members of the SWLRT Executive Change Control Board, which meets monthly to approve cost increases.
Will the audit change anything?
If the legislative auditor’s review determines that alternative, less damaging, routes were not sufficiently considered, it could mean a reroute for the Minneapolis segment. It could prompt consideration of a switch to the vastly less expensive bus rapid transit (BRT).
A finding of Met Council incompetence could result in transferring the project to another agency, such as MnDOT, or even abolishing the agency and redistributing its functions among new and/or existing agencies. Dibble is introducing legislation to enable both outcomes.
