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Southwest lrt project office11/20/2023 ![]() The Met Council has not been transparent with the Legislature and the public about the project’s increasing costs and delays.The pre-construction engineering and analysis of underground conditions in the narrow - and troubled - Kenilworth Corridor, where a shallow tunnel is being built, did not identify soil conditions blamed on expensive changes and long delays.But OLA also found that after the contractor blamed the Met Council for the delays, the Met Council eventually agreed. The council did not hold its contractors accountable for repeated failures to provide an acceptable project schedule.When it added a $90 million wall between its tracks and BNSF freight tracks, it did so as a change order rather than using a new bidding process. The Met Council bid the project knowing there were significant pieces of the project not included and not yet estimated.And it didn’t have enough money to finish it, either. When it learned in early 2022 that it no longer had enough money to complete the project, the project was faced with that dilemma cited by Hansen - it didn’t have enough money to end the project because that would require repaying federal funds and restoring the route to pre-construction conditions.“The Legislature should create a framework so the entity that is leading light rail construction has some of its own money at stake so if it goes over budget, it feels the pain, it’s penalized and if it comes in under budget it’s rewarded,” Kirchner told the commission. The federal share of $929 million is capped, and Hennepin County has balked at finding what remains of the $500 million shortfall identified a year ago. “The structure of how the region builds big transit projects creates a mismatch between the entities that fund the construction and transit and the entities that are responsible for constructing them.” That is, the Met Council has relatively little money in the project, instead relying on the federal government, Hennepin County and earlier the now-defunct five-county Counties Transit Improvement Board.All could find sections of the audit to support their statements.įor example, according to a presentation led by David Kirchner of the OLA: Both suggested that the very structure of the appointed regional government needs reassessment. ![]() DFLers pointed to the OLA findings that the Met Council has not been transparent in communicating problems with budgets and timelines. Republicans were able to reiterate complaints about using light rail as a mode of transit when buses are cheaper and more flexible. Other members of the audit commission took turns bashing the council and the project. Scott Dibble: “I’m not quite sure where to start, there’s so much here to unpack.” As currently estimated, Southwest LRT project costs per mile of track are comparable to costs for similar projects in millions of adjusted dollars. While the audit attempted to find the cause of the problems facing the project and suggest remedies, its recommendations, if adopted, would do little to change this project, leaving commission members frustrated. “We have policies and we have processes and we have working groups, task forces, reports, warning signs and bells and whistles saying something’s wrong, and it still goes off the rails.Īudit project manager David Kirshner and Legislative Auditor Judy Randall are shown at Wednesday’s hearing. Paul DFLer who chairs the audit commission. “It seems that nobody’s at fault, or everybody’s at fault,” said Rep. “We also found that the Metropolitan Council obligated itself to spend money it did not have, added or changed substantial work after the project was bid, and was not fully transparent about the project’s increasing costs and delays.”īut while the report brought no new revelations, having it all in one place by an independent auditor was sobering for members of the joint Legislative Audit Commission. “Minnesota has a mismatch between the entities that fund the construction of light rail transit projects and the entities responsible for constructing them,” wrote the Office of the Legislative Auditor in a special report requested by the Legislature. So much bad news has flowed from the Met Council and its Southwest Light Rail Transit (also known as the Metro Green Line Extension) project that a harsh report from the state’s legislative auditor might be seen as just more of the same. The interior of the SouthWest Station being constructed in Eden Prairie as part of the Southwest Light Rail Transit project.
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