As a member of the I-35W Access Project Advisory Committee (PAC), I
attended the January 11th meeting with MnDOT reported on in this Star
Tribune article. The article, titled "MnDOT says it can meet
neighborhood's wishes on I-35W plan", while accurate, gives an
optimistic picture that I wouldn't give it. There's more under the cover
here and I'd like to add a couple of points:
First, the public should know that MnDOT is moving forward with its
long-sought expansion plans on I-35W (adding new HOV lanes from 46th
to Downtown) and is doing so by piggy backing on the Access Project.
While MnDOT agrees in concept that the HOV plans are separate from the
Access Project (i.e., it will require its own environmental review and
public input process), it sees the PAC's recent action to accommodate
future HOV lanes in the design of new ramps in the Lake Street area as
an important community endorsement of its expansion plans. It continues
to seek advantage. At Friday's meeting with PAC representatives, MnDOT
stated that it wanted to move forward the timeline for building new HOV
lanes (originally 2015) and that the only way for MnDOT to commit an
additional $75 million to the Access Project (the projected cost of
accommodating new lanes now and mitigating the impacts of the these
changes) is to package the first phase of the HOV plan as part of the
Access Project (2004 to 2008).
The PAC representatives at the meeting baulked at such a suggestion as
they do not want to portray the PAC's vote to accommodate HOV lanes as
a direct endorsement of MnDOT's plans. I was one of three PAC members
voting against the recommendation to accommodate HOV lanes as I was
fearful about giving MnDOT a green light for expansion.
Second, it was the PAC's hope that MnDOT would reciprocate the PAC's
vote to accommodate HOV lanes with full funding of its share of the
Access Project (the additional $75 million). But, MnDOT has no money,
as the Star Tribune article makes clear. It doesn't have funds for the
additional cost of a redesigned Crosstown ($80 million), the additional
cost to accommodate HOV lanes as part of the Access Project ($75
million), or the future HOV lanes themselves ($200 million). MnDOT wants
the Access Project partners to help come up with the additional needed
funds. Moreover, MnDOT suggested that it would want to secure funding
for all three efforts along the I-35W corridor (Crosstown, HOV lanes and
Access Project) before it allocates any funds to the Access Project.
PAC representatives flinched again at this suggestion as it was another
attempt by MnDOT to tie the Access Project and HOV plans together. It
seems that the PAC has little leverage to get what it wants from MnDOT,
despite its support to accommodate HOV lanes.
For a more detailed account of the issue, go to www.swjournal.com for
its recent article "Ramping Up Tension" and the attached still
unpublished opinion piece that Robert Lilligren (8th Ward City Council
member) and I wrote for the Star Tribune. Both provide a good history
and framing of the issues at hand.
Jeanne Massey
Ward 10
Mn/DOT is Back with I-35W Expansion Plans in South Minneapolis
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) is back with another I-35W
expansion plan, trying its luck again at getting a bigger freeway, one that
Minneapolitans have already said "no" to. The Star Tribune (on December 17) backed
the plan, urging a group of neighborhood and business representatives who had been
working for three years on improving freeway access to support Mn/DOT's last-minute
expansion proposal.
The group, the I-35W Access Project Advisory Committee (PAC), did just that on
December 18. The vote directed Access Project consultants to retrofit existing designs
to handle new high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) lanes (one in each direction) in the middle
of I-35W between 46th Street and Downtown. Although this vote was not meant as a
direct endorsement for the additional lanes, this may be just the message the PAC
sent, giving unearned legitimacy to Mn/DOT's expansion plans. Even though Mn/DOT will
eventually have to bring its expansion proposal to the community and undertake an
environmental review process, its use of the Access Project to advance its expansion
goals is unfair and stacks the odds against empowered community decisions regarding
new lanes.
Reducing gridlock on I-35W is a pressing metropolitan problem, but we don't presuppose
that expanding the freeway is the answer. Countless studies show the futility and
extraordinary cost of trying to build ourselves out of congestion. The PAC should
reconsider its decision to accommodate new lanes on I-35W, and Minneapolis
neighborhoods should work with their suburban neighbors to create viable transit
solutions that keep Minneapolis and the region a vital place to work and live.
The I-35W Access Project was not designed to evaluate expansion. Its goal was to
improve access in the Lake Street area. Begun in 1998 by a consortium of Minneapolis
businesses, the City of Minneapolis and Hennepin County, it is guided by an advisory
group of impacted businesses and neighborhoods. The PAC has approved several
recommendations that add new north ramps and a flyover ramp at Lake Street, redesign
the 5th Avenue ramp and relocate the 35th/36th Street ramps to 38th Street.
At the 11th hour, piggybacking on the legislature's 2001 mandate to alter Crosstown's
reconstruction, Mn/DOT proposed new HOV lanes to be built in 2015 and asked the Access
Project to design any new bridges and ramps to the specifications of such an expanded
freeway. The PAC voted to accept these changes because they believed that Mn/DOT would
not approve the Access Project without them.
As PAC members, we have had several concerns about negative impacts of the I-35W
Access Project even before the expansion proposal emerged. Although we have been and
remain committed to working with the PAC and project consultants to reduce these
impacts, we, and Antonio Rosell representing Ventura Village, voted against
accommodating new lanes within the Access Project because:
1. Adding lanes for I-35W breaches a compromise reached between Minneapolis and Mn/DOT
in the mid-1990s after years of battling freeway expansion in South Minneapolis. That
compromise committed Mn/DOT to no new lanes from 46th Street to Downtown in exchange
for no Light Rail Transit (LRT) on I-35W. Additionally, any HOV lanes would be
provided by converting an existing lane in each direction, not by building new lanes.
Mn/DOT is reneging on this agreement and is moving forward with plans to expand the
freeway.
2. Mn/DOT argues that the addition of HOV lanes will require only minimal right-of-way
taking, so what's the big deal? The big deal is that there is no guarantee that HOV
lanes will remain HOV lanes and, that any new lanes (HOV or all-purpose) will bring
more cars to the freeway and Minneapolis neighborhoods, and continue to support costly
and environmentally and socially damaging urban sprawl. The PAC was asked to make its
decision without seeing any preliminary studies showing the need for, implications of
and alternatives to additional lanes.
3. The PAC acted hastily and didn't follow its own process for obtaining community
input, which was set up to ensure the integrity and inclusivity of the project's
decision-making process. Recommendations are normally voted on at the meeting
following the initial discussion, providing time for representatives to take
information back to their communities and get input prior to their vote. This time
the process was not followed.
4. The additional $45 million (beyond the original $80 million estimated for new ramps
and $25 million for mitigation) needed to handle the expansion has no funding source.
Whether state or federal, these funds will be hard to find in a time of shrinking
government revenues, and may be diverted from other metro or outstate transportation
projects.
Although Mn/DOT's goal is speeding up commutes, we think they need to slow down on
this one. And the public should know there is no public buy-in for these changes.
By Members of the I-35W Access Project Advisory Committee:
Robert Lilligren, Minneapolis City Council, 8th Ward
Jeanne Massey, Community Representative for Kingfield Neighborhood
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I-35Wpiece-draft7.doc 01/16/02
