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Christine Beckwith will help guide the future of the Blue Line Extension as it moves towards the start of construction anticipated around 2025.

Project leaders can now move forward on this important transit project by continuing environmental, design, engineering, and anti-displacement activities.

This is the first official step in moving the route recommendation into environmental work and advancing design where further in-depth engagement and review will continue as the project develops.

Recommendation: extend the Blue Line from Target Field station along West Broadway Avenue in Minneapolis to County Road 81 in Crystal and Robbinsdale and along West Broadway Avenue in Brooklyn Park.

The work group's 26 members include residents and business owners in the area, people with lived experience of displacement, and people from the philanthropic community and government agencies.

Comments on the report will be accepted through January 25, 2022 and will inform the final evaluation and route recommendation in spring 2022.

This action to invest in anti-displacement is intended to support corridor residents, businesses, and equitable development in the corridor.

The extension will connect the cities of Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Robbinsdale, Golden Valley and Minneapolis to the existing Blue Line light rail route.

“It is time for this project to begin writing its next chapter. It is too important for the people served by this line to wait any longer,” he said.

Hennepin County and the Met Council feel it is time to work with agency and community partners to explore opportunities to advance this critical project without using BNSF Railway right of way.