| Northstar rail locomotives have all arrived |
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| Wednesday, 14 January 2009 | |
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Managing editor All five locomotives for the Northstar Commuter Rail project have been delivered and are sitting at the Big Lake maintenance building. Delivery of four remaining engines from the factory in Boise, Idaho, took place last week; the first locomotive arrived last fall. In addition, the passenger cars are being built at Bombardier plants in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, and upstate New York, according to Tim Yantos, executive director of both the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority and the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA). All 18 passenger cars are scheduled for delivery in the spring for testing to begin in June, Yantos said. Bids on the construction contract for the Fridley station will be opened Jan. 27 and a contract award will be considered by the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority at its meeting Feb. 10. “We hope to send a notice to proceed letter to the contractor in late February,” Yantos said. The Fridley station will be the final construction project needed to complete the first phase of the Northstar Commuter Rail system in time for its scheduled November 2009 start. The Fridley station, which was removed from the phase one full funding grant agreement with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) because of cost concerns, was resurrected when the Counties Transit Improvement Board (CTIB) approved a $9.9 million funding request from the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority for construction of the station. The five-county (Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey and Washington counties) CTIB was established to administer the new quarter-cent sales tax approved by the Minnesota Legislature in 2008, over Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto, to help fund transit projects in those counties. The CTIB will also pay for the local commitment to the operating expenses for Northstar. Some work took place on the Fridley station project last year. The Fridley Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) acquired property needed for the station site, while the county rail authority paid for a $1.3 million project to construct a pedestrian tunnel at the station location at East River Road and 63rd Avenue N.E., which took place over the Memorial Day weekend. From the $9.9 million approved for the Fridley project by CTIB, the county regional rail authority will be reimbursed for the tunnel construction, Yantos said. Meantime, a minimum amount of construction continues during the winter weather on the other rail stations - downtown Minneapolis, Coon Rapids, Anoka, Elk River and Big Lake. According to a construction update on the Northstar Commuter Rail Web site, crews will be installing new light poles in the parking lots and near the platforms at the Coon Rapids, Anoka, Elk River and Big Lake stations over the winter. But the winter slowdown was anticipated in the construction schedule and the station projects are on time, according to Yantos. Indeed, the vehicle maintenance building at Big Lake has been completed. The Anoka County Regional Rail Authority, comprising the seven member of the Anoka County Board, had it organizational meeting for 2009 last week. Re-elected were Commissioner Dan Erhart as chairman, Commissioner Dennis Berg as vice chairman, Commissioner Jim Kordiak as secretary and Commissioner Dick Lang as treasurer. Berg, as chairman, Erhart and Commissioner Scott LeDoux comprise the rail authority’s Management Committee, while Erhart and Berg are Anoka County’s representatives to the NCDA. “This time next year we will be able to look out of the window and see the trains running,” said Yantos. The rail authority meets in the Anoka County Board Room on the seventh floor of the Anoka County Government Center in downtown Anoka. Northstar trains will provide commuter service during morning and evening weekday rush hours to and from Big Lake and Minneapolis as well as regular weekend service and some special event trains. Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
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