This month, the Metropolitan Council released the final environmental review for the Bottineau Blue Line light-rail project, a hefty document that details environmental adjustments that need to be made before the $1.54 billion line is built.
The public has until Aug. 15 to comment on the plan, which is available here: metrocouncil.org/blrt/feis.
My initial reporting concentrated on the effect that noise and vibrations from light-rail trains will have on the neighborhoods along the 13.5-mile line. But further study unearths other interesting tidbits, though none of them appears serious enough to affect the project.
A bit of background: The Bottineau line begins (or ends) at Target Field in downtown Minneapolis, traveling through Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal, and ending at the Target North Campus in Brooklyn Park. All told, 11 stations are planned, and service is expected to begin in 2021.
And now for the fine print:
• Eight miles of the route will share right of way with BNSF track and trains. Known as "common corridor operations," this setup isn't unusual across the country, the study notes, including transit systems in suburban New Jersey, Charlotte, N.C., Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Jersey City, Los Angeles, Sacramento, St. Louis, San Jose, suburban Maryland, and Portland, Ore. Safety measures to protect the corridor are planned, including "corridor protection walls" between freight and light rail cars.
• Building the line means the Met Council will have to acquire 292 parcels of land, 14 of them total acquisitions and 278 partial. One residential property will be acquired, as well as 13 commercial/industrial buildings.
• According to U.S. census data, 14 percent of the households in the Bottineau area do not own a vehicle, nearly double the metro-area average of 8 percent. In some areas of north Minneapolis, the number of zero-car households is higher than 35 percent; and more than 20 percent in areas of New Hope and Brooklyn Park.
