Current Project Phase

Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)
Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority is leading an environmental study called a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) that is expected to be completed in 2011.  The DEIS documents the potential impacts for three potential Southwest Transitway LRT routes, and one potential sub-alternative route.  When the DEIS is published, a widely-advertised public comment period will begin.  To receive immediate notification of the DEIS publication, please sign up for the project email list.  For guidelines on how to comment on a DEIS, please see A Citizen's Guide to Commenting on Environmental Review Projects.

Application to Enter Preliminary Engineering
On Aug. 31, 2010, the Metropolitan Council submitted a New Starts application to the Federal Transit Administration to enter Preliminary Engineering.  The project expects to receive approval to enter Preliminary Engineering by mid-2011.

Approval to Enter Preliminary Engineering
On Sept. 2, 2011, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) gave the go-ahead to enter Preliminary Engineering (PE). The Metropolitan Council will lead the PE efforts along with Hennepin County and other project partners to finalize plans for station placement and design, refine the estimates of project costs, benefits and impacts, finalize management plans, and identify and fully commit local funding sources. The PE process will take about two years and complete about 30 percent of the design work.

In order to expedite project delivery and avoid duplication of work, the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority (HCRRA) initiated the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) before identifying the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) for the Southwest Transitway.  The environmental review process, which begins with the DEIS, was initiated prior to identification of the LPA to ensure that the presence of critical environmental resources would be considered when identifying the LPA.  Additionally, proceeding this way allowed the public and affected agencies to comment upon the purpose and need for the project as well as the alternatives under consideration.

Though the process of selecting the LPA is a separate process from the environmental review process, the two processes overlap.  The stops below describe how the DEIS and LPA selection processes fit together and how the Southwest Transitway project will proceed with planning. 

1. Scoping The Southwest Transitway DEIS documents the potential social, economic, and environmental benefits and impacts of the Southwest LRT line, and proposes measures to mitigate any adverse impacts the project may have. Scoping is the first step in the DEIS process and is designed to inform the public, interest groups, affected tribes, and government agencies of the start of the DEIS. The purpose of scoping is to confirm the purpose and need for the project, identify appropriate alternatives for addressing the needs, and identify the potentially significant environmental issues associated with the proposed alternatives that should be analyzed in depth in the DEIS.
   
   • Click here for the Scoping Information Booklet and Scoping Summary Report.
2. Evaluation of Alternatives Each of the four alternatives: 1A, 3A, 3C-1, and 3C-2, are evaluated based on ridership, capital and operating cost estimates, cost effectiveness, transit system integration, implementation factors, and an inventory of potentially affected environmental resources.
   
   • Click here for the evaluation technical memos.
   • Click here for the LPA Report
   In early September 2009, the Southwest Transitway Technical Advisory Committee set in motion the process of selecting the route of the Southwest LRT line, called the Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA). After a public hearing on Thursday, September 17, 2009 (transcript), the Policy Advisory Committee made an LPA recommendation, which was forwarded to the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority, who held a second public hearing on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 (transcript). The HCRRA LPA recommendation was forwarded to the Metropolitan Council as a request to amend the regional Transportation Policy Plan. On May 26, 2010 the Metropolitan Council approved the LPA selection for the Southwest Transitway by amending the regional Transportation Policy Plan (TPP) to include LRT 3A.
3. Finalize DEIS Document A series of open houses was held in May, 2010 to share preliminary findings from the DEIS.  Click here for May 2010 Open House boards.  Hennepin County submitted the DEIS document to the Federal Transit Administration in June 2010.  The document is currently under review by the Federal Transit Administration.
4. Publish DEIS The DEIS is currently under review by the Federal Transit Administration; publication of the DEIS and a 45 day public comment period will follow this review. To receive notification of the DEIS publication and public comment period, sign up for the project email list on the Contact Us page. Click here for the draft DEIS Table of Contents