UPA081507

Feds announce $133 million transportation grant for Twin Cities

By Jim Foti, Star Tribune

Last update: August 14, 2007 - 9:54 PM

Uncle Sam wants you to stop sitting in traffic.

In announcing a $133 million grant to the Twin Cities on Tuesday, federal transportation officials gave their blessing to a host of highway and transit projects between downtown Minneapolis and the southern suburbs.

The extensive plan focuses on Interstate 35W and includes creating high-occupancy toll lanes from south Minneapolis to Burnsville, adding a regular lane to the southbound Minnesota River crossing and creating a unique northbound shoulder lane that would be opened to paying and high-occupancy traffic only during congested periods. Downtown bus lanes would also be expanded.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters said Tuesday that the grant was not related to the I-35W bridge collapse, though $13.2 million of the grant was made available immediately to deal with the area's transportation needs during the rebuilding.

"This is not as a result of the bridge collapse," Peters said.

Peters noted the grant had been sought since April. "This is as a result of a very comprehensive proposal," she said.

The Twin Cities was one of five metro areas that won an Urban Partnership grant; 26 had made initial proposals. The other four winners were New York, Miami, Seattle and San Francisco. The program was designed to encourage creative solutions to congestion, and entrants were required to include some form of congestion pricing.

Transit is a key component of the plan, said state traffic engineer Bernie Arseneau.

Bus rapid transit along the Hwy. 77/Cedar Avenue corridor will be fast-tracked, and rush-hour fares will be reduced on some routes to encourage ridership, he said.

The federal funding also will pay for the complete rebuilding of Marquette and 2nd Avenues through downtown Minneapolis to widen sidewalks, enhance bus stops and create two bus lanes on each of the two streets.

Minneapolis City Council Member Sandy Colvin Roy, chairwoman of the council's Transportation and Public Works Committee, said Tuesday that without the award, "we were thinking none of this could happen until 2012, but now this changes everything."

All elements are to be in place by September 2009.

Colvin Roy said she's ecstatic about the opportunity to lessen bus traffic on Nicollet Mall and eliminate it altogether on Hennepin, which is expected to return to two-way traffic.

The buses' relocation will triple the number of riders that can be handled through downtown, especially during rush hour, Colvin Roy said. "When one bus has pulled over, other buses will be able to use the second lane to pass," she said.

An experiment

Arseneau said that the special toll shoulder lane, which will run on the inside shoulder northbound from 46th Street into downtown, will provide an extension of the high-occupancy toll lanes during congested periods. Engineers dubbed it a "priced dynamic shoulder lane" to reflect the fact that the price will change depending on demand, like the MnPASS lanes on Interstate 394.

Federal officials, Arseneau said, are interested to see how it works. "We're way ahead of a lot of urban areas on these tools and strategies that we're using," he said.

The state's earlier grant proposals were for amounts above $200 million but were scaled back at the request of federal officials.

Staff writers Kevin Diaz, Laurie Blake and Terry Collins contributed to this report. Jim Foti • 612-673-4491 • jfoti@startribune.com