The Metropolitan Council, the provider of services for the Minneapolis–Saint Paul (Twin Cities) region, has announced that the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has signed off on the METRO Blue Line Extension Light Rail Transit Project’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
“The completion of the federal environmental review is an important milestone for the Blue Line Extension LRT Project,” said Metropolitan Council Chair Adam Duininck.
The next step is for the Metropolitan Council to vote on the adequacy of the Final EIS, which it will do on September 28, after which the state environmental review process for the project will be concluded. The Council will then ask the FTA to authorize the project’s entry into the engineering phase.
“The project will be poised then to advance the design over the next year and request federal funding in spring 2017,” Duininck added.
The METRO Blue Line Extension will travel approximately 13 miles from downtown Minneapolis through north Minneapolis, Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park. It will feature 11 new stations and will connect with the METRO Green Line and the Northstar commuter rail line.