Last day for public comment on Central Corridor LRT

Today is the final day for public comment on the Central Corridor light rail project.

Project manager Mark Fuhrmann expects today's public comment deadline will create a flurry of statements for review. Among other concerns, St. Paul community groups are lobbying for three more light rail stations along a stretch of University avenue in St. Paul.

Fuhrmann said public comments that contain information not already gathered will become part of the record of the federal environmental impact statement and the so-called record of decision for the project.

"That document then will become really the binding and guiding document for the project going forward into final design and ultimately construction as to what mitigation activities or designs we'd need to incorporate into the overall project," Fuhrmann said.

Fuhrmann may have a little more money to address some of the community's' concerns if the Federal Transit Administration adjusts their equation that set the limit on funding for the project.

"The possibilities out there would possibly entail an infill stations [that] has been discussed previously, or other mitigation actions that have yet to be integrated in to the project budget," he said.

The proposed line from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis still needs final approval from the federal government. If the project wins federal approval construction would begin late summer next year and passenger service would begin in 2014.

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