ST. PAUL - April 20, 2011 – The federal government will make official its contractual commitment to pay half the cost of building the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line at a ceremony April 26.
The Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) signing will occur at 11 a.m. in the Harold E. Stassen Office Building on the LRT route at 600 N. Robert Street in the state Capitol complex.
Gov. Mark Dayton, Sen. Al Franken, Rep. Betty McCollum, the mayors of St. Paul and Minneapolis, commissioners from Ramsey and Hennepin counties and Metropolitan Council Chair Sue Haigh will be among the speakers. Planners invited current and former officeholders who played a role in shepherding the line through 30 years of planning to unite Minnesota’s capital city and its largest city by light rail. This line is becoming a reality because of the partnership between state and local governments, which include the Ramsey and Hennepin counties’ regional rail authorities, the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the Counties Transit Improvement Board.
The FFGA commits the federal government to reimburse the project’s funding partners for half the cost of building the $957 million line. The project has spent $185 million for design, property and construction.
With support of both past and present federal and state administrations for the Central Corridor FFGA, the Met Council awarded the major construction contracts last year and began work after receiving sufficient advance funding commitments from local funding partners, creating 571 jobs in 2010.
The project is poised to create a total of at least 3,400 jobs in engineering, construction, management and operations personnel by the time trains begin service in 2014.
Media Contact
Laura Baenen
Communications Manager
Central Corridor LRT Project
651-602-1797 (office)
612-269-4365 (cell)
[email protected]