Caledonia Argus

$900 million transportation initiative presented

Posted: 8/5/03

by T.W. Budig
ECM capitol reporter

Suburban commuters will benefit from a $900 million transportation initiative presented by the Pawlenty Administration on July 31.

Gov. Pawlenty called transportation a significant quality of life issue for Minnesotans.

ìOur vision to reduce congestion and move people faster and more efficiently will become a reality over the next six years, thanks to an innovate transportation funding solution,î he said.

Cited among the dozen large-scale transportation projects ó projects above and beyond MnDotís normal workload, Pawlenty points out ó are:

ï Hwy. 101, Crow River to Mississippi River, interchange and bridges. Schedule for 2006. Cost $54 million.

ï I-94 at Monticello, bridges and roadway realignment. Scheduled for 2006. Cost $20 million.

ï Hwy. 169, Anderson Lake to Highwood Dr., Bloomington, interchanges and bridges. Scheduled for 2006. Cost $105 million.

In addition, under a $36 million transit program, plans call for a park-and-ride lot to be built off Hwy. 65 in East Bethel at a cost of $200,000.

Some $100 million is slated for safety improvements over the next four years.

Of this, some $12 million has been slated for an upgrade of the Hwy. 65/242 interchange in Blaine.

That upgrade is scheduled to begin in 2007.

Rep. Andy Westerberg, R-Blaine, said Hwy. 65 stands as a strong contender for other safety improvement funding in upcoming years.

Some $400 million in state highway bonding will be used to leverage about $425 million in advanced federal funding for 2004-07.

The 20-year bonds will be financed with some $36 million trimmed from internal MnDot funding.

The administration hales the initiative as advancing the 12 major projects by more than 65 years and saving about $140 million in construction inflation costs.

It estimates the user-benefits at as much as $300 million, primarly the result of improved safethy and mobility.

IThe advanced highway projects will directly or indirectly add some 3,700 jobs, said Pawlenty.

One big beneficiary of the bonding is Hwy. 212 in the southwest metro. Of the total $825 million in bonding, some $225 million is slated for Hwy. 212.

Lt. Gov. and Transportation Commissioner Carol Molnau is a former lawmaker from Chaska ó a community affected by the scheduled Hwy. 212 improvements.

But Molnau, speaking at the press conference at a MnDot truck facility in St. Paul, said neither she nor governor drew up the project list.

ìThe package was totally drawn by MnDot professions,î she said. She and the governor did approve the final list, Molnau said.

Sen. Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, Senate transportation budget division chair, said itís always good news when Minnesota roadways get more funding.

Still, itís estimated just to maintain the highways over the next 20 years at current levels will require an infusion of $10 billion, he said.

ìThis bonding package is just the tip of the iceberg and only accounts for ten percent of the problem,î he said.

Further, the administration ìmassagedî the divying up of the bonding money between the metro and rural, explained Johnson.

He finds it ìintriguing,î that Carver County, previously in the MnDot metro district, in the initiative is considered a rural county.

Senate DFLers have been calling gas tax increases to fuel transportation funding ó itís the fairest way of sharing the burden, said Johnson.

But Pawlenty, while saying the administration is exploring new ways of highway funding, again said he does not favor a gas tax increase.

If the gas tax is untouchable, where can more transportation funding be found, asked Johnson.

ìI donít know where you go. I donít know where youíre going to squeeze the money,î he said.

But Pawlenty said DFLers enjoyed almost an unbroken monopoly in state government and ìdidnít do squat for 20 yearsî for transportation.

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