Big transportation projects like the Blue Line Extension are intended to bring big benefts. Those big benefits can also bring impacts to neighborhoods, businesses, and the environment.
The environmental review process for the METRO Blue Line Extension is a federal requirement to identify environmental, social, and economic benefits and impacts of the project, and how to avoid, minimize, or mitigate any unintended consequences.
The environmental review process for the current route consists of two parts:
The METRO Blue Line Extension project has been doing this work as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Minnesota Environmental Policy Act (MEPA) and plans to publish a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement in late spring or early summer 2024.
What's in the EIS?
The Environmental Impact Statement includes detailed study and documentation of a wide variety of potential benefits and impacts of the project during both construction and operation of the project, including:
- Land use, and how the project fits with existing or planned land uses
- Effects on community or communities surrounding the project
- Property that may need to be purchased and what residences or businesses may need to relocate
- Business needs, including access during construction, relocation, revenue
- Indirect and cumulative effects of the project
- Environmental Justice communities (e.g. communities of color, low-income communities, disability community etc.)
- Historic properties
- Parks
- Visual impacts
- Safety
- Transportation, including bike, pedestrian, transit, vehicles, freight rail, and aviation
- Water resources, including wetlands, floodplains, stormwater, groundwater, water quality
- Soils and geologic resources
- Plants and animals, including threatened and endangered species
- Noise and vibration
- Contaminated properties and hazardous materials
- Air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and energy usage
Environmental review of previous route
In 2016, a Final Environmental Impact Statement (2016 FEIS) was published, and a Record of Decision was issued by the Federal Transit Administration for the initial route. Because of the route change in 2022 (Link to route modification report), the 2016 FEIS is now being revised to evaluate the new alignment through the Supplemental DEIS and FEIS.
View environmental documents from the previous route