![]() The fact that work on the crash wall was not competitively bid prompted concern from auditors. When the council bid the project in 2018, it did not include the crash wall or the Eden Prairie station in the package. Other significant cost drivers were the late addition of a $93 million, 1-mile crash wall west of Target Field to separate freight and light-rail trains and reinstatement of a station in Eden Prairie that had been eliminated in 2015 in a fit of cost-cutting. While critics charge the Met Council should have known beforehand that tunneling in the Kenilworth corridor would unearth a wet, rocky mess, the auditor's report says that engineering reports done before construction began didn't predict any significant issues. "The lengthy delay has serious financial implications," the report said. ![]() Squeezing light-rail and freight trains and a popular bike and pedestrian path in the isthmus between Lake of the Isles and Cedar Lake, amid poor soil conditions, prompted a series of costly changes in the way the tunnel was constructed.īy October 2020, civil contractor Lunda-McCrossan Joint Venture (LMJV) was predicting a completion delay of 759 days - a little over two years - largely as a result of the tunnel difficulties, according to the report. Zelle told the Legislative Audit Commission that the council has adopted a new policy to "address and manage risk" when advancing transit projects that clarifies their risk, roles and responsibilities.Īccording to the report, the project's delays - which inevitably led to higher costs - can be traced in large part to the difficulty of building a tunnel for light-rail trains in the narrow and rocky Kenilworth corridor in Minneapolis, within inches of the Cedar Isles Condominiums. He added: "While project funding is shared between multiple parties, risk and accountability resides with the Met Council." In his formal response to the audit, Met Council Chair Charlie Zelle said the report doesn't give the council enough credit for transparency and accountability with its funding partners, the federal government and Hennepin County. ![]() Legislative Auditor Judy Randall said Wednesday that the Met Council wasn't "as cooperative as most state agencies when we come calling." Requests for information often were made "numerous times" and, though she said most documents were ultimately provided, there was "a lot of back and forth and follow up." "The Metropolitan Council has utterly failed in its management of the project." John Jasinski of Faribault, the ranking Republican on the Senate Transportation Committee, in a statement. "Southwest light rail is a boondoggle of historic proportions," said Sen. The report's conclusion that the council was not "fully transparent" with the public and legislators about the project's burgeoning cost and delays proved irresistible to the agency's many critics. They added that the Met Council "knew that problems were present yet did not share these concerns until much later." "The lack of prior planning, an enforceable schedule, competitive bid process, and peer review process all led to increased costs and long delays," Dibble and Hornstein said in their statement. The duo, the driving force behind the legislative auditor's probe, are pushing for Met Council members to be elected rather than appointed. Frank Hornstein, both Minneapolis DFLers, in a joint statement. The report, presented Wednesday to the Legislative Audit Commission, "reiterated our concerns over the mismanagement of this project" by the Met Council, said Sen. Service on the line between downtown Minneapolis and Eden Prairie is expected to begin in 2027, nearly a decade behind schedule. Southwest - at more than $1 billion over budget, the state's most expensive public works project ever - is more than 70% complete, but its budget is still short $272 million, according to the report. The 42-page report, the second of four expected on the troubled project, questions the way the job was bid, the council's seemingly fraught relationship with its main contractor, and the lack of transparency in communicating the project's numerous issues to the public. The Metropolitan Council continued to spend millions on the $2.7 billion Southwest light-rail line even though there wasn't enough money to finish a project that had already become rife with delays and cost overruns, according to a report released Wednesday by the Office of the Legislative Auditor.
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