Metropolitan Council outlines $21.9 million in capital requests for busways, wastewater I&I and parks

Charlie Zelle, chair of the Metropolitan Council, told the Capital Investment Committee on Feb. 25 that the council’s capital asks in the governor’s recommendation focus on three areas: arterial bus rapid transit and busway capital, inflow-and-infiltration (I&I) mitigation for wastewater systems, and regional parks and trails capital grants.

Zelle said the governor’s recommendation includes $15,000,000 for a busway capital improvement program, $4,600,000 for inflow-and-infiltration repairs administered through the council’s environmental services program, and $2,300,000 for the regional parks and trails bonding program. “We believe this $15,000,000 would be a key local match to a federal small starts program,” Zelle said about the planned H Line arterial bus rapid transit corridor, which he described as a 17-mile east–west route that would cross many existing transit ways.

On inflow and infiltration, Kyle Colvin, manager of wastewater planning and community programs at the Met Council, said prior state bonding has been highly leveraged: $25,000,000 has driven roughly $150,000,000 in local I&I work, a leverage ratio Colvin described as about 6-to-1. He noted municipalities apply for locally administered grants and that some communities and contractors face capacity constraints; he cited a 2008 council study estimating the public-infrastructure portion of I&I mitigation at about $50,000,000 in 2008 dollars.

Colvin said the council operates nearly 200 sanitary flow meters that monitor community inflows and continues to detect excess stormwater infiltration after storm events in some communities, though overall occurrences have decreased since the program began.

On regional parks and trails, the council said the proposed $2.3 million bonding request would be matched with regional funds (a two-for-three match) and support capital projects across the seven-county metro park system that serves millions of visits annually.

Committee members questioned the overall scale of I&I needs, local cost shares, contractor capacity and how transit planning for highway corridors (including Highway 252 and I-94) is coordinated with MnDOT projects. Met Council officials said they are engaged with MnDOT on corridor planning and committed to providing further details on corridor studies and program solicitations when requested.

Ending: Council staff said the programs are in active use and that past bond funds were fully encumbered by communities; committee members asked for additional detail on studies, timing and capacity constraints.