4.2. SR 10-20-2003 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Printer version: As LRT work continues, officials think about luring riders Page 1 of 3 startribune.coln C!o~e_\¥iodo_w As LRT work continues, officials think about luring riders Laurie Blake star Tribune Published 09/21/2003 Looking up at the sun reflected in the color panels she selected for the all-glass light-rail station above E. Lake Street, artist JoAnn Verburg can feel it: The train is coming. Hiawatha Avenue light rail is 80 percent completed. The start of service is but seven months away. Heavy construction has shifted to the Bloomington end of the 12-mile line. And in Minneapolis, stations are undergoing finishing artistic touches. For St. Paul artist Verburg: "It's thrilling to me to see people looking up at the building, and my color of glass is part of that. I just can't wait to see real transit users walk past my colors and hop on a train." Riders will be able to jump on in April when the line opens between downtown Minneapolis and Fort Snelling. The rest of the line, through the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and on to Bloomington with a final stop at the Mall of America, is scheduled to open in December 2004. With the start of service in view, the project's pace is picking up, said John Caroon, manager of the design-build effort for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). Dry weather allowed strong progress this summer, Caroon said, and it was a good thing. "It seems like no matter what kind of project it is, when you get close to the wire, things start to get compressed a little bit." Rail construction requires work in sequence: move the earth, put in the ties and lay the rail. Said Caroon: "If a little more time is taken by putting in the rail or the ties, that can cause more stress on later activities, such as putting in the signal system and wiring for closed-circuit TV at the stations. We still plan on being into revenue service in April of 2004. And we are going to do what's necessary to cause that to happen." Here are glimpses of progress. The budget This year, the decision was made to tweak the route of the line through Bloomington, putting the last stop right at the Mall of America's transit hub. That added about $40 million to the cost -- bringing the total to about $715 million. About $9.2 million remains in the contingency fund to cover unexpected expenses in 2004 and it will all be used, said Mark Fuhrmann, chief financial officer for the project. Wooing riders http://www.startribune.com/viewers/Story.php?template=print_a&story=4108643 9/25/03