Southwest LRT builders begin installing train track

After some punishing news regarding its financial picture, the Southwest light-rail project's first tracks were installed this week just outside of Hopkins.

The addition of rail tracks in the western suburbs represents a "major milestone" for Southwest, said project director Jim Alexander.

"It sets the stage for everything else," Alexander said. "It demonstrates that we're putting a huge project together that will last generations."

An extension of the existing Green Line, the Southwest line will connect downtown Minneapolis with Eden Prairie through St. Louis Park, Hopkins and Minnetonka.

Eleven of 16 planned stations are either under construction or nearly complete, according to the Metropolitan Council, the regional planning agency building the line.

The Downtown Hopkins Station is one of three planned for the city. The stop will be connected to the city's Main Street by 8th Avenue, where bicycle and pedestrian improvements are planned.

The remaining stops in Hopkins will be Blake Road Station, north of Excelsior Boulevard on the Cedar Lake Regional Trail, and Shady Oak Road Station, near the Minnetonka border.

One of the larger projects was proposed this summer by Minneapolis-based Alatus, which has pitched a $240 million complex near the Blake Road Station featuring 775 housing units in a 14-story tower and several smaller buildings.

The 17-acre vacant industrial site along a little-used stretch of Minnehaha Creek has long been eyed for re­development. Hopkins city officials and the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District endorsed the plan this summer.

Other major developments are either planned or already built in Eden Prairie, St. Louis Park and Minnetonka.

"The developers have been way ahead of the game," Alexander said.

It's unclear what Southwest's current price tag is or when the light-rail line will begin service because of what the Met Council has called "unforeseen conditions" encountered in construction. The council is working to pin down both the overall cost and timeline, Alexander said.

The addition of extra money "is huge for us. It gives us some level of comfort" moving forward, Alexander said.

Many of the construction issues have occurred in Minneapolis' Kenilworth corridor, a narrow urban passage that will be shared by light-rail and freight trains, bicyclists and pedestrians on a path near Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake, and several residential buildings.