Ongoing problems with Southwest Light Rail
By: Senator John Jasinski
By now there have been so many horror stories about Southwest Light Rail (SWLRT) that it borders on ridiculous.
You will remember, this is the project to extend the Twin Cities light rail system from Target Field to Eden Prairie. Initially projected to cost $1.87 billion and be completed by 2021, it has been embroiled in complications from the beginning, including cost overruns, delays, construction damage to nearby buildings, soil problems, and a critical audit.
The project director recently told the Met Council that the budget for the state’s most expensive public works project has ballooned again to staggering $2.86 billion. The projected date of completion has been pushed back, again, to 2027.
In addition, a Met Council engineer has filed a lawsuit alleging he was demoted for attempting to control the rampant change orders that contributed significantly to the project’s escalating costs. The lawsuit centers on accusations that the Met Council was overcharged due to manipulated processes in handling these change orders.
Last summer, a program evaluation by the nonpartisan Legislative Auditor (OLA) used the topic of change orders to demonstrate the Met Council’s failures. The report noted the Met Council “closed” many change orders with delays unresolved and failed to report those delays to approval bodies, despite federal requirements.
From March 2019 to October 2022, the SWLRT processed 658 civil construction change orders, resulting in a cumulative cost increase of almost $220 million. The OLA found problems with six out of nine change order situations it reviewed, such as the settlement agreement for the Kenilworth Tunnel and the change orders for Eden Prairie Town Center Station.
The program evaluation also found the Met Council paid contractors what was requested with little or no explanation that those costs were reasonable; failed to adequately document decisions or track costs related to nonconformance reports; and its original construction contract did not provide sufficient mechanisms for the Council to enforce contract requirements.
I have said it before, but the Met Council’s handling of the Southwest Light Rail project has been a catastrophe in every conceivable way. Their failures and mismanagement have cost taxpayers billions of dollars, they have utterly failed to provide any adequate oversight of the construction process, and they padded the numbers to add more profit for contractors and for disadvantaged businesses – even when none were used.
In the world of private business, or even personal finances, when you receive numbers you think are wrong you address the issue immediately. When the Met Council received numbers that seemed fishy, they simply shrugged their shoulders and threw away more taxpayer dollars.
It has been ludicrously bad management from the start to the eventual (and at this point theoretical) finish.
That’s why it was especially troubling that House and Senate Democrats and Gov. Walz lifted the ban on state money going to Southwest Light Rail last session, and failed to enact systematic changes to how the Met Council administers taxpayer dollars.
That was a mistake, and I will strongly encourage Democrats and Gov. Walz to reverse it. Taxpayers should no longer be on the hook for this boondoggle.
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