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Fridley's plans for Northstar station are on fast track Page 1 of 3 '~~~t"Tt`~l1.;In@. GOt1'r I'~~III`1NE.AF'OLIS - ST. PAUL, I~+IIf~E aOTA Fridley's plans for Northstar station are on fast track By JIM ADAMS, Star Tribune November 29, 2008 Designers are hurrying to finish plans for the Fridley rail station, the most expensive and last station to be built before the Northstar Commuter begins running in November 2009. Northstar's first $2.6 million diesel locomotive already has been delivered to the line's maintenance facility in Big Lake on the northern end of the 40-mile line, and four more engines and 17 passenger cars are to arrive by spring. Most of the line's other stations are nearly complete. But the $9.9 million Fridley station, between East River Road and Main Street at 61st Avenue, was a late addition to the project, having been killed earlier because of a federal funding shortage. In late October, the Counties Transit Improvement Board, which oversees spending of the new quarter-cent transit sales tax approved this year by the state Legislature and five metro-area counties, decided to make the Fridley project one of its first funding priorities. It awarded the $9.9 million needed to revive the project. The Fridley station's specifications are due to be completed shortly, and officials hope to award bids in January so work can begin as soon as the ground thaws, said Tim Yantos, executive director of the Anoka County Regional Railroad Authority. Back from the brink The Federal Transit Administration, which is paying for about half of the $320 million line, had dropped the Fridley station from its funding after Northstar's costs increased above initial estimates. The federal agency allowed the station to be built only if it wouldn't delay opening of the line that will carry commuters from Big Lake to Minneapolis in less than 45 minutes. To keep the project alive, Fridley spent nearly $3.2 million for 10 acres, mostly for parking, on the east side of the station at 61st Avenue and Main Street, said Paul Bolin of the city's Housing and Redevelopment Authority. The money came from leftover tax increment revenues from three other projects, a source approved by the Legislature, Bolin noted. Anoka County's rail authority chipped in another $645,000 for parking space on the west side of the station by East River Road. The Fridley station will be the only one of six stops on the line to have a pedestrian tunnel under the tracks and three elevators that will carry passengers to the platform. The 400- foot-long platform will have three glass-enclosed heated shelters. http://www.startribune.com/templates/Print This_Story?sid=35239429 12/4/2008