Fix for relocating misplaced tracks adds to light rail line’s cost overruns

It’s only a drop in the bucket when it comes to the massive cost overruns and delays that have plagued the continuing construction of the Southwest Light Rail Transit line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie. Yet the $141,000 bill for removing and relocating a section of light rail track due to a mistake exposed by a citizen with a tape measure typifies the foibles that have led to the doubling of the cost of the now nearly $3 billion project.

The job involved moving hundreds of feet of track over roughly a foot in a job that KSTP-TV says was completed back in June.

One day of work to shift a small section of freight tracks along the Southwest Light Rail project corridor in Minneapolis cost more than $140,000, according to a pair of change orders approved by the Metropolitan Council and its contractor. 

The extra work was required after 5 INVESTIGATES first exposed that crews laid new light rail tracks about a foot too close to the existing freight tracks at W. 21st Street. 

Earlier this year, Marion Collins raised concerns that the construction just steps from her home was not following the project’s design plans, which required the two sets of tracks to be at least 25 feet apart.

Met Council officials downplayed the financial impact on the overall project, the largest public works project in Minnesota history. But the taxpayer who first exposed the agency’s shoddy work months ago wasn’t buying it.

That work cost $141,681.03, according to two change orders obtained by 5 INVESTIGATES through a request under the Minnesota Government Data Practices Act.

“Everybody knows if you’re doing extra work, it costs extra money,” Collins said. “We all have home improvements and no contractor is going to come to my house and fix something for free.”

The cost to fix the measuring mistake included an additional $7,200 to cover workers’ overtime because Metro Transit scheduled the job on a Sunday.

Besides being $1.5 billion over budget, the Green Line Extension will not be completed and in service until 2027, nine years later than originally planned. Until then, skeptics like Marion Collins will be keeping a close eye on the unpopular line every step of the way.

Accountability has been lacking for Southwest Light Rail, according to Collins and a chorus of others who have been questioning the decisions of project managers for more than a decade.  

“I do think that it is a symptom of a larger problem,” Collins said. “A disregard for people, place, environment.”

She says she remains concerned about the safety of her neighborhood when new light rail trains begin sharing the same corridor as freight trains carrying hazardous materials.