SLP Wants Up to $50M in Southwest LRT Improvements

A trail overpass at Beltline Station and a change of the Louisiana station location are just some of the $24.5 million to $49.5 million in amenities St. Louis Park officials are asking Southwest Light Rail planners to tack on to the project.

The requests are part of more than $100 million in “betterments” that cities along the line have requested. Those additions are not part of the $1.58 billion to $1.82 billion core cost of the project, but local officials argue that they will increase ridership and improve their communities.

The improvements could be paid for with unused contingency funds. At this stage of planning, the Federal Transit Administration requires projects to factor a contingency of 30 percent into their estimates—much larger than the 10 to 15 percent that is typical for city and county project, said Craig Lamothe, Southwest LRT’s deputy project director.

Below is a list of the requests:

• Louisiana station ($18 million to $23 million): Move the station to adjacent to Methodist Hospital. Remove entire switching wye. Place park-and-ride east of Louisiana Avenue and south of the freight rail corridor, on Oxford properties.
  
  
• Wooddale station ($3 million to $3.5 million): Build trail underpass at Wooddale Avenue. 
  
  
• Beltline station ($18 million to $23 million): Grade-separate Beltline roadway underneath light rail, freight rail and bike trail.
                                   OR
  ($3.5 million to $4 million): Build trail overpass at Beltline Boulevard.