Met Council awards LRT engineering contract
Written by Douglas John BowenIn Minnesota, Metropolitan Council has awarded Cary, N.C.-based Kimley-Horn and Associates Inc. an engineering contract to advance the 13-mile Bottineau Light Rail Transit line (Blue Line extension).
The Bottineau Line, one of two Met Council is actively advancing at present, would extend the current Blue Line from its current terminus at Target Field, Minneapolis, north to Brooklyn Park, Minn., and include 11 station stops. Last month the The Federal Transit Administration approved the line’s development.
The contract, awarded Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2014, is not to exceed $110 million, and charges Kimley-Horn with overseeing project development from preliminary engineering through construction.
A Met Council spokesperson told local media Kimley-Horn also has served as the primary consultant for preliminary engineering on the eastern portion of the contentious Southwest LRT Line, designed to link Minneapolis to Eden Prairie, Minn. Kimley-Horn also was a subcontractor for the Green Line (formerly the Central Corridor Line), linking Minneapolis with Union Depot in St. Paul, which opened last June.
