The Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), have to come to a tentative agreement on how to design a new interchange for Highway 169 and Interstate 494.
“I just think it’s a huge step forward,” said State Rep. Jenifer Loon (R-42B, Eden Prairie).

Loon is among the group of officials and legislators that have been working together for the past two year to kick-start the long dormant project. It’s been a group effort for officials from Eden Prairie, Edina, Bloomington, Scott County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to corral funds and consensus on the project, which would include reconstructing the 169/494 interchange and removing the stoplights that stall drivers from around the metro.

A recent letter from the FHWA offers confirmation that federal officials and state planners will be able work together a “performance based design.” The project was last stalled due to the differences in what the FHWA would require for its interchange design requirements and the state’s plan for a less extensive (and less expensive) project.

According to state officials, traffic analysis shows the interchange project would be sufficient without two of the major directional flyover ramps. The performance-based design from MnDOT would cut $30 million from the cost of the project and exclude two directional flyover ramps that take drivers eastbound from I-494 to northbound Highway 169 and from southbound 169 to westbound 494.
In letter sent Monday to Minnesota Transportation Commissioner Tom Sorel, FHWA Division Administrator Derrell Turner states that the agency is “willing to pursue” MnDOT’s request for the “performance based design.” The FHWH gave conditional approval “pending development of performance criteria and implementation thresholds.”
Under the performance-based design, MnDOT would continue to evaluate the traffic needs in the area and the eastbound and southbound ramps could be built at a later date, if needed.
In September, MnDOT submitted the interchange project as part of its application for TIGER or Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant program funds to cover $135 million of a $200 million-dollar project. Included in that project cost is construction of an interchange at Highway 13 and Highway 101 in Savage, which feeds into the 169 corridor.

The application also included a proposal for funding of the directional ramps (an additional $30 million on top of the requested $201.3 million) in case it did not receive FHWA support. However, with this conditional agreement, it appears federal officials may be willing to work with MnDOT on its performance-based design.

John Griffith, project manager at MnDOT, noted that they received the letter on Monday and were “pleasantly surprised.”
Whether this will give the project an edge in receiving federal grant funding is yet to be determined. It’s estimated that states will hear back about TIGER applications in early 2010, according to Griffith. A total of $1.5 billion is available to be divvied out among projects around the country.

“Whenever you can reduce the cost of a big project by $30 million it means that perhaps we can get closer on finding the funds to really make some improvements there,” added Loon.
Eden Prairie City Manager Scott Neal noted that this project has been something that Eden Prairie officials have been working on with Bloomington, Edina, and Scott County officials for the past two years.

The important part of the announcement Monday was that the federal officials are now supporting the reduced scope of the project, he said.

That’s good, he added because “that puts the project into in a price range which will make it a very good applicant under the TIGER grant program.”