Met Council "not aware" of any additional expenses for Southwest Light Rail project that's ballooned to $2.74B
MINNEAPOLIS -- The chair of the government body overseeing the troubled Southwest Light Rail project said he was not aware of any additional costs associated with the transit line, but he didn't rule out there could be increases in a complicated area of construction.
Total costs for the Metro Green Line extension from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie has already doubled to $2.74 billion from initial estimates. A special review by the Office of the Legislative Auditor released last Friday underscored that more than $500 million — or 20 percent of the project — does not yet have a funding source.
The legislative auditor on Thursday presented those findings to a panel of lawmakers on the Legislative Audit Commission.
Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson, who chairs the transportation committee in the State Senate, asked Charlie Zelle, chair of the Met Council overseeing the project, if there were any "unknown expenses" beyond the $534 million identified in the report.
"There's not something lurking out there that you're aware of that the OLA or this committee is not aware of -- is that correct?" Newman said.
"I'm not aware of anything that would be outside of this budget scope, but given that we are in a sensitive area of the project – the Kenilworth trail – there is still risk," Zelle said. "It could go either way. But there is now refreshed contingency, and we're hopeful that we're on track."
The special review provided an accounting of the timeline and details about cost overruns. A more extensive program evaluation about the Met Council's decision making is still to come, but will likely come in multiple parts, said Judy Randall, the legislative auditor.
She told lawmakers she expects the first part of that report available at the beginning of the 2023 legislative session. That report will give specific recommendations to the legislature.
"As the team has been digging in, we're finding that just as it's a big infrastructure project, it's a really big evaluation," Randall said. "So we're seriously contemplating issuing a series of reports."
The opening date for the transit line has extended until 2027 -- nine years later than initially planned, the audit noted. The report highlighted construction along the narrow Kenilworth Corridor in Minneapolis as a key driver of increasing costs and delays.
There is reported damage in a condominium complex close to the construction in that area, which has sparked safety concerns. Zelle said the Met Council started a mediation process with residents.
"We entered into mediation to have a thoughtful process of -- knowing we simply can't ignore some of their concerns and seeing what we could find for solutions to keep the project moving," he said.
Sen. Scott Dibble and Rep. Frank Hornstein, two Democrats who represent Minneapolis, support changing the structure of the Met Council so that it's an elected body. Right now, members are elected by the governor.
The pair said they are committed to introducing legislation next year to make them elected, an effort they believe will to boost accountability.
"The Met Council is legally constructed as a local unit of government, it's like a large county, but it isn't governed by anyone who has any measure of electoral, democratic accountability," Dibble told the panel Thursday. "So these kind of decisions can just kind of roll along in zombie-like fashion."
When asked about changing the structure of the Met Council, Randall pointed to a previous a legislative audit report from 2011 on transit in the Twin Cities metro that included among its recommendations a suggestion to make Met Council members directly elected, listing pros and cons for the idea.
"I think this is an important conversation for the legislature to have," she said. "Some of our reports kind of age out because things change, but nothing has happened related to the Met Council and the government structure so I think a lot of those issues are still relevant."