Blue Line Extension successfully gains municipal consent, looks ahead 

The METRO Blue Line Extension LRT Project is one step closer to becoming a reality after gaining approval for municipal consent. Project staff are now focused on designing 13.5 miles of double track, 11 stations and the operations and maintenance facility.

At left: Target's campus in Brooklyn Park.

They’ll also be advancing designs of LRT bridges, four park-and-ride facilities, other support structures, trails and reconstructed roads and bridges.

“Successfully gaining municipal consent speaks to the strength of this project,” said Adam Duininck, Met Council Chair. “We have had strong partners in the cities, the county, and the businesses all along the line. Whether it was the Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute in Golden Valley, local businesses in each of the cities, or Fortune 500 companies like Target, their support has been key to building out a system that connects people with jobs. A robust, regional transit system stimulates job growth and investment in new businesses.”

Robbinsdale was the fifth and final city, in addition to Hennepin County, to take action, voting unanimously on March 2 in favor of the 13-mile line. 

The Blue Line Extension Project – often called the Bottineau LRT – will expand the existing Blue Line from Target Field in downtown Minneapolis into the northwest suburbs through Golden Valley, Robbinsdale, Crystal and Brooklyn Park.

When completed, the line will offer a one-seat ride from the Target Northern Campus in Brooklyn Park to the Mall of America in Bloomington, with stops throughout Minneapolis and at the MSP International Airport. Passengers will also be able to transfer to the existing Green Line, to access the University of Minnesota, destinations along University Avenue or Downtown St. Paul as well as to the job-dense Southwest Corridor on the planned Green Line Extension. 

“We value being a major employer and partner to the Brooklyn Park community,” said John Mulligan, executive vice president and chief operating officer, Target. “We have a vested interest in helping to ensure it is growing and evolving to meet the needs of our team members and guests. The Bottineau LRT line will bring an affordable and convenient transportation option to the Northwest suburbs as well as faster public transit connections to destinations like downtown Minneapolis and MSP airport, benefits supported by the communities along the route.”

“The Blue Line Extension LRT will provide a critical access point for our students, faculty and staff,” said Dr. Barbara McDonald, President of North Hennepin Community College. “We are delighted to hear that the project has received municipal consent and look forward to the services it will provide our community.”

At the McDonald’s in Brooklyn Park on West Broadway, Yasmin Hyder is looking forward to the benefits of having a Blue Line light rail station just steps away.

The Hyder family owns 11 McDonald’s total, including four in Brooklyn Park. Another Hyder-owned McDonald’s in Crystal is located a quarter-mile from the planned Bass Lake Road station.

With about 40-50 employees in each store, the improved transit option “would mean now we can expand our hiring and make it easier for employees to travel where they live and go to school,” Hyder said. “In other locations, light rail is such a good source of transportation, easy and reliable.”

Municipal consent is required by Minnesota state law, including a system’s physical design components such as tracks, bridges, stations, roads and support structures. The Met Council approved the project’s scope and $1.496 billion cost estimate in December.

In August 2016, staff will finalize the 30 percent design plans and specifications and apply with the Federal Transit Administration to enter the Engineering phase of the project. Heavy construction is set to occur in 2018–2020, with passenger service beginning in 2021.

Wicked Wort brewpub opens in former bank a block from planned Robbinsdale Station

At left: John Carlyle, owner of Wicked Work Brewing Co.

After a major renovation of a former bank building, Wicked Wort Brewing Co. opened in Robbinsdale on Jan. 22. Owner Steve Carlyle sees opportunities for his brewpub in the downtown setting. 

“Robbinsdale’s a small town. It’s got a small-town feel,” Carlyle said.

He acquired the former TCF Bank building for Wicked Wort knowing that the METRO Blue Line Extension LRT is set to have a station a block away. The station could give the downtown area a higher profile and more foot traffic, which fits in with Carlyle’s plans.

Wicked Wort “is an event center built around a brewery,” he said.
When Carlyle first drove by the former TCF Bank, looking for a site for a brew pub, he didn’t think much of the building. When he got inside, though, he found a building that was built like a fortress, with a concrete floor above a sizable basement level. Then he heard a suggestion that he could cut a hole in the floor to open up the space.

 “Any dude’s going to want to cut a hole in the floor,” he said.
The floor cut exposes the downstairs brewery and event space to the first-floor tap room. Carlyle is also working on plans for a rooftop patio.

Herzing University in Crystal would be short walk from future Bass Lake Road Station

Herzing University in Crystal is looking forward to the arrival of the Blue Line Extension, which would have a station just a short walk away at Bass Lake Road and Bottineau Boulevard.

The Blue Line Extension would “connect us to a segment of the population that doesn’t have access” to Herzing currently, said John Slama, the president at the Herzing campus in Crystal. To the north, the Blue Line Extension would travel through Crystal to Brooklyn Park, and to the south, it would move through Robbinsdale and Golden Valley on its way to downtown Minneapolis.

The school where 300 students study nursing, dental and occupational therapy assistant work  would benefit from sidewalk improvements between the school’s location and the new station at Bass Lake Road, Slama said. 

Above: John Slama, president of Herzing University in Crystal.

Currently, transit options aren’t ideal for students, Slama said. The school offers a variety of class schedules for its students, who have an average age close to 30 and are disproportionately first-generation college students.

But the Blue Line Extension would provide frequent, reliable service with a wealth of connections to bus lines that intersect the new LRT route. The line would also connect to the region’s larger transit network, opening up schools like Herzing to an expanded base of potential students. 

Small Brooklyn Center engineering firm helps build Green, Blue Line Extensions

Progressive Consulting Engineers Inc. has intentionally remained a small company, but its 10-person staff has utilized their expertise on some of the biggest public works projects in Minnesota history.

The Brooklyn Center-based engineering firm, incorporated in 1979, is doing utility-related work on both the Southwest LRT (METRO Green Line Extension) and the METRO Blue Line Extension projects. That follows work the firm did on the Blue and Green Lines starting more than 10 years ago.

At right: Naeem and Nuzhat Qureshi, owners of Progressive Consulting Engineers Inc.

While PCE had already built up a solid client base before starting to work on Metropolitan Council LRT projects, Naeem and Nuzhat Qureshi -- the firm’s husband-and-wife owners -- say the state’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program helped open doors.

“DBE provides you an opportunity to prove yourself,” Naeem Qureshi said.

Both of the Qureshis grew up in Pakistan and were married there before coming to the United States to further their educations in the mid-1970s.  

The move to Minnesota followed Naeem’s brother, who had come to the state in the 1950s. Naeem, who had been educated as an engineer, landed a job with Minneapolis’ Public Works Department soon after his arrival. He later earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from the University of Minnesota.

Naeem started PCE in his spare time while still working for the city of Minneapolis and made the firm his full-time job in the mid-1980s. PCE has been in its current office in Brooklyn Center for more than 20 years, but it does business across Minnesota. Client cities stretch from Cloquet to Oakdale, and Naeem regularly travels the state to make contacts and market PCE.

Nuzhat has an MBA degree from the University of St. Thomas and has long been the vice president and controller of PCE, handling the company’s finances.

A big break for PCE came in the late 1990s, when work began on the Blue Line LRT project along Hiawatha Avenue in Minneapolis. The lead engineering contractor wanted a local firm that was familiar with Minneapolis’ public works staff for the utility work. That job was also PCE’s first experience with the state’s DBE program.

When the Qureshis first heard of the DBE program, “both Naeem and I did not like that idea at all,” said Nuzhat Qureshi. “We are professionals.”

But they were told the program could give their firm leads on more projects, and they signed on.

Requirements for participating in the DBE program include limits on personal net worth (less than $1.32 million). Also, participating companies need to meet Small Business Administration size standards as measured by annual gross receipts. Those standards vary by industry. Also, ownership must be at least 51 percent minority or female.

The DBE goal is 19 percent for the Green Line Extension LRT Project’s advanced design contract and for the Blue Line Extension engineering contract.

The Hiawatha Avenue project in the late 1990s went well for PCE. As time went on and more transit-related projects, such as the METRO Blue Line LRT project, progressed, the Qureshis realized the DBE program was an opportunity, Nuzhat said. “We wouldn’t have gotten the light rail work without DBE,” Naeem said.

The firm’s engineering expertise is centered on water supply and utility design, handling everything from water tower and water treatment plant designs, to site plans and required approvals from watershed districts. On the METRO Green Line and Blue Line Extension projects, PCE’s work is focused on utility design and relocation.

PCE anticipates utility issues similar to what it saw when it worked on the Green Line in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Naeem said. Cities and utility companies have lines running under stretches of LRT right-of-way, and those lines need to be relocated so utility crews can maintain them in the future without interfering with LRT service. Existing sewer lines, water lines or electrical lines sometimes are located near each other.

“Competing interests have to be accommodated,” he said. The various groups involved need to be satisfied with the process on relocations and the final outcome.

On the METRO Green Line Extension project, the overall design work is ongoing, and PCE’s work has focused on utility coordination with the project stakeholders and private utilities, sanitary sewer and water main relocation and design, said Bojan Misic, who leads the engineering work on the civil, utility and LRT track parts of the project.

That work also includes meeting regularly with private utility companies, such as gas and electrical firms, to discuss design and future construction work. The actual utility relocation work on the METRO Green Line Extension won’t start until the project’s environmental review is complete, which is expected later this year.

“They do great work,” Misic said of PCE. The firm’s work is well known in the Twin Cities area from its previous experience on large civil and transportation projects, he said. PCE’s work will also continue during construction, as crews identify other underground issues.

The Qureshis are members of the Boomer generation, and have started thinking about the future of PCE after they retire. PCE’s work on the light rail projects will continue for about five more years, and then the Qureshis say they’ll start looking for a way to transition the firm’s leadership, possibly to a current employee.

“We want the company to be sustainable. It has to live,” Nuzhat Qureshi said. “We want to see the values and strategies continue.”

Small minority-owned or women-owned companies that want information about the DBE program and working on the LRT projects should contact senior equal opportunity consultant Andrew Larson of the Metropolitan Council’s Office of Equal Opportunity at Andrew.Larson@metc.state.mn.us or 612-373-3896.