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Bottineau Boulevard Alternatives Analysis study approved

March 2008

A million-dollar Alternatives Analysis study for the Bottineau Boulevard corridor through northern and northwestern Hennepin County was approved March 11 by the Board of Commissioners, acting as the Hennepin County Regional Railroad Authority.

“The Alternatives Analysis study will put transit along this corridor one major step closer toward becoming a reality,” said Commissioner Mike Opat. “I appreciate my colleagues’ support to fund this study and make the Bottineau corridor, along with the Southwest corridor and Central corridor, the transit priorities of Hennepin County.”

The study will recommend preferred alignments and modes of transit for the corridor after an exhaustive evaluation of all available alternatives. It is a required step for transit projects that may seek federal “New Starts” funding. The engineering firm SRF Consulting Group, Inc., headquartered in Minnesota, was selected to prepare the study.

“After the unprecedented success of the Hiawatha light rail transit (LRT) line, it only makes sense to evaluate LRT along with the other options for Bottineau,” Opat said.

The Bottineau Corridor is a radial transitway corridor extending from downtown Minneapolis northwest through Robbinsdale, Crystal, Osseo, Brooklyn Park and Maple Grove, and potentially to the rapidly growing communities of Dayton, Rogers and Hassan Township. The Bottineau Corridor (previously known as the Northwest Corridor) is identified in the Metropolitan Council’s 2030 Regional Transportation Policy Plan as a Tier 1 Corridor, bus rapid transit (BRT), with implementation prior to 2020.

In March 2007, the Bottineau Boulevard Partnership, a group chaired by Commissioner Opat and comprised of other elected officials, business representatives, and other corridor stakeholders, passed a resolution supporting a two-year pause in the further implementation of BRT in order to evaluate the feasibility of LRT and other modes of transit.

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