Rail Project’s price tag jumps by $18M

04/19/2006

BY CHARLES LASZEWSKI
Pioneer Press

News that building the Northstar Commuter Rail system between Minneapolis and Big Lake is likely to cost $18 million more than was thought in December had rail supporters taking the offensive Tuesday.

Anoka County Commissioner Dan Erhart pointed out that in the mid-1990s, the Wakota Bridge was supposed to cost $28 million and now is $132 million. And the Interstate 694/35E project went from $42 million to $116 million. Others pointed to the Interstate 35W/Crosstown project, which went from $135 million in 2001 to $251 million now.

“These costs go up,’’ Erhart said. “The FTA (Federal Transit Administration) has looked at other projects in other parts of the country and they don’t think we can do it for this cost and so we need to put more money in.’’

A Dutch study of transportation projects worldwide found that nearly all of them come in above estimates and the highest ones are rail, said Rep. Phil Krinkie, a Lino Lakes Republican who opposes the project. The length of the Northstar line has already been cut, and he predicts the final costs will be more than $400 million.

“I would like to see road improvements on (U.S.) 10,’’ Krinkie said. “If you want to spend money, build a railroad. If you want to move people, build a road.’’

Bumping the estimated cost from $289 million to $307 million is causing some concern among those working on the train project. First, the commissioners in Anoka and Sherburne counties, sitting as their respective rail authorities, had to increase taxpayers’ contributions to $49 million from about $44 million, Erhart said.

Anoka County approved the increase last week. The Sherburne County Board approved the increase Tuesday, said County Administrator Brian Bensen.

The state’s share does not change, said Brian McClung, Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s spokesman. Increased costs are “part of these big projects,’’ and the governor still thinks it’s important that the bonding bill contain the state’s $60 million share, he said.

More ominously, the jump to $307 million puts the project close to the limit of the cost-effectiveness number set by the FTA to receive federal funds to start a new mass-transit project like Northstar.

In a March letter from FTA Regional Administrator Marisol Simon to Lt. Governor Carol Molnau, Simon said it was “imperative to stress that the project cannot achieve a full funding grant agreement’’ from Washington unless it meets three conditions.

The easiest condition to meet is that the line be accessible to the disabled. The other two involve completing negotiations with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway to use the company’s rail corridor and meeting “FTA cost effectiveness requirements,’’ the letter states.

Bob McFarlin, an assistant to Molnau in her capacity as Department of Transportation commissioner, acknowledged that the higher budget brings the cost-effectiveness number close to where the FTA could kill the project.

Bumping the budget by $18 million primarily resulted from two areas, said Mike Schadauer, MnDOT’s deputy director of project controls for Northstar. A little more than half of that money went to project management and construction administration and another $6 million or so was used to bulk up the contingency fund, he said.

The other major hurdle remains the negotiations with Burlington Northern Santa Fe. McFarlin said he has a self-imposed deadline of reaching an agreement by the end of the month.

In the negotiations, the two sides must decide how many improvements must be made to the BNSF rail line, what they will cost and the lease payments for using the tracks, Schadauer said. Those items will constitute about half the $307 million project cost, he said.