5.1. SR 06-13-2005 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Albertville Mayor Peterson presented Albertville's perspective with Larry Kruse's assistance. General comments included: o A brief summary of the funding request - $1 million for final design and right of way and $12 million for interchange improvements. Project summary information was provided as reference. o Tremendous growth along the corridor, and the communities north and south of Albertville that are increasingly dependent on improved access through Albertville. o Limited access interchange at CSAH 19 forces traffic on local streets at CSAH 37 to access the outlet mall. o Retail growth at the outlet mall will eventually choke traffic on local streets and is creating an increased safety risk to motorists and pedestrians o Eventually 1-94 will be widened to three lanes each direction and the interchanges will have to be rebuilt. Improvements made now will accommodate this expansion and dramatically improve access and safety. o Strong support exists from the commercial/developer community and local residents. MnlDOT's District 3 office supports the request and has been participating in the activities we have completed to date. o The City has been proactive in addressing these issues and has funded 100% of the environmental work and preliminary design work for interchange improvements to date. Any federal funding provided will be spent promptly and local share will be provided by the city. Final design may start this summer and construction could start as early as 2006. o An invitation was extended to the elected officials to visit Albertville to discuss this project and other local issues. . All of the offices were aware of the funding requests and offered to assist with obtaining funds. The federal fiscal year '06 appropriations request that was submitted to Mr. Kennedy's office was forwarded to the Senate offices to be considered during the Senate appropriations process. . The Authorization request for $12 million has received $lm in the House bill. The Senate staff are aware of this and will work to ensure it stays in the Senate version and in the House/Senate conference bill. Current Status of the Albertville funding request - (CSAH 37 and CSAH 19/1-94 interchanges) . Federal transportation appropriations ($1.5 million for final design and ROW) and authorization ($12 million for construction) requests have been submitted. They were split out based on discussions with Mr. Kennedy's staff'- Mark Matuska. The House TEA-LV (authorization) bill has the project included for $lm as a high priority project (placeholder). The Senate needs to be supportive of it staying in the bill. No action on the appropriations request for FFY'06 has occurred. 1fno appropriation is included, the authorization amount will be treated as an appropriation if the President signs TEA-LV into law. Next Steps- The Tinklenberg Group will: . Continue to monitor legislative processes and maintain communications with congressional offices. Respond to information requests froIlli congressional offices, the media and the public. . Outreach activities include working with city staff to identify local business groups/ developers to contact regarding the project and to develop a communications strategy to discuss and build support for the project with neighboring comTIl-unities (Otsego, St. Michael, etc.).