Scott County details sales tax-funded transportation projects, timelines and funding gaps

Lisa Fries, Scott County transportation services director, briefed the Board of Commissioners on the county's transportation sales tax program and the status of projects financed or leveraged with those funds.

Fries told commissioners the county initially adopted the half-percent sales and use tax in May 2015 after a change in state law allowed counties outside CTIB to levy the tax and said the county's goal was to "focus in on mobility and safety projects" and to leverage state and federal grants. "One of the first projects we actually funded with the sales tax is that 41 and 169 project," Fries said, tying the tax to accelerated delivery of that work.

The update listed 10 projects that are either completed or underway. Fries said five projects are fully complete and several others are in final right-of-way or closeout stages. She highlighted recent ribbon cuttings for the 59/169 interchange and the quadrant interchange at 169 and Bluff Drive; another ribbon cutting is scheduled later this month for the Bluff Drive project.

Why it matters: the sales tax has been a primary local funding tool for multi-jurisdictional projects that MnDOT and local…