Star Tribune
The latest SWLRT snafu: wrong placement of tracks
On a hunch, Marion Collins took a giant tape measure last December and calculated the distance between light rail and freight rail tracks installed near her Minneapolis home for the Southwest light rail line. Her hunch proved correct — and it turned into the latest snafu dogging construction of the $2.9 billion transit project.
Collins knew the distance between the center of one set of tracks to the middle of the other was designed to be 25 feet to separate light-rail and freight trains along a narrow stretch of the route. But her measurement found the distance was nearly 11 inches short of the mark.
That means the 200 light-rail trains traveling through the Kenilworth corridor every day will be nearly a foot closer to nearby freight trains, which often carry hazardous materials such as ethanol. The project, about 80% complete, is slated to begin service in 2027.
“When there’s a collision, our neighborhood will become a big black hole,” Collins said in a recent interview. Other neighbors, donning tape measures and a healthy sense of skepticism, came up with similar measurements as well.
In an interview with the Star Tribune, Southwest Project Director Jim Alexander said, “we have to figure out what happened and see what we can do about it.” He told members of the Metropolitan Council last month, after KSTP first reported the problem, that the fix could happen later this spring or early summer and it won’t affect the project’s overall price tag.
Alexander said his staff took their own measurements near the W. 21st St. station and found the tracks are seven inches short of 25 feet. Either way, the tracks were installed too close to one another.
The co-location of light-rail and freight trains in the narrow corridor of Minneapolis has long been a challenge for the 14.5-mile extension of the Green Line, which will link downtown Minneapolis with Eden Prairie. An early design of the route called for freight trains, operated by Twin Cities & Western Railroad (TC&W), to be routed through St. Louis Park, leaving the Kenilworth Corridor with just light rail trains, and a bike and pedestrian path.
But St. Louis Park residents fended off the proposed alignment a decade ago, leaving transit planners to figure out how to squeeze freight, light rail and the bike and pedestrian path in Minneapolis. This led to a tunnel being added on part of the route for light-rail trains, a complex option that caused the project’s budget to more than double since 2011, making it the most-expensive public works project in Minnesota history.
Alexander said about 100 feet of track, which was installed around a year ago, is affected. The segment of the project in Minneapolis, he added, hasn’t been formally turned over by the contractor to the Met Council, which is overseeing Southwest’s construction. When that happens, then the project’s engineers check to see if it was built to specification.
“We’re talking to our engineer to see what happened to see what we can do about it,” Alexander said. “I don’t consider this a big issue, but we have to take a look at it and see what we can do to fix it.”
The project’s general contractor, Lunda/C.S. McCrossan Joint Venture (LMJV), declined to comment on the track issue.
The Southwest project is currently being probed by the state’s Office of the Legislative Auditor in an attempt to figure out what went wrong with its ballooning budget and timeline. One of the reports issued by the auditor last year took the Met Council to task failing to enforce the $799 million construction contract, but LMJV later criticized the state auditor for lacking the necessary expertise to review such a complicated project.
The Federal Transit Administration, which regulates light rail and is paying nearly $1 billion to build Southwest, referred questions to the Federal Railroad Administration. A spokesman for the FRA said there is no “specific guidance” on track spacing, crash walls or barriers in this kind of scenario.
Alexander said anything less than 25 feet between freight and light rail tracks would require a crash wall, according to the project’s design. The project’s design calls for several crash walls, including one just west of Target Field that was built at the behest of rail giant BNSF Railway to separate its trains from Southwest’s. The mile-long wall cost $93 million.
Mark Wegner, CEO of TC&W Railroad, said the discovery about the track spacing “isn’t a concern, they can rectify it.” If tracks were closer than 25 feet, it would make it more difficult and expensive for maintenance workers to do their job safely, he said.
“I would characterize this as a potential annoyance,” Wegner said. “It’s not a safety concern.”
Alexander said the current design calls for “intrusion protection” — bolsters separating freight and light-rail trains along this segment that send a signal to a rail control center and alerting train operators if there’s a problem.
Even at 25 feet, Collins says it’s too close for comfort. “I really don’t feel they’re invested in safety,” she said of the Met Council.
The Southwest project has been controversial in Minneapolis for more than a decade, and in 2014, neighbors sued to stop the line from being built, saying it violated federal environmental laws. The suit was unsuccessful, but bitter feelings continue to fester.
Not far from the track blunder, residents of the Cedar Isles Condominiums are locked in mediation with the Met Council over cracks in the building and flooding in its parking garage that occurred during construction of the nearby Kenilworth tunnel.
When asked why it took residents donning a measuring tape to discover the latest problem, Alexander said “I know this has caused another ripple with the neighbors, but we still feel very highly about this project, it will be a transformational line for the region.”
Collins says she’s glad she acted on her hunch: “I don’t trust them, that’s why I measured.”
A jury found a longtime farmhand in southern Minnesota guilty in the killing of his boss, a man whose death prosecutors argued would bring the debt-ridden worker a “significant financial benefit.”
Travis Joel Bauer, 48, of Winthrop, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in Sibley County District Court on Friday. The jury, after deliberating until 9 p.m., also found him not guilty of first-degree murder with premeditation.
Bauer was arrested last year in connection with the 2022 shooting of his boss, Dennis D. Weitzenkamp, 79.
Winthrop police found Weitzenkamp in his machine shed, slumped over to the left side of his body, with a bloody gunshot wound in the back of his head and no weapon within reach, court filings said. Weitzenkamp appeared to have been about to shuck an ear of corn, police said.
Bauer had helped Weitzenkamp “farm his land for many years and was considered part of the family,” a complaint against him read. Weitzenkamp was an Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War and moved to the Winthrop area in 1998, his online obituary said. He was survived by his wife of 37 years, five stepchildren, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and enjoyed “watching sports, playing cards, bowling, traveling with family, driving trucks and wintering in Florida,” the obituary added.
Bauer told police that he never saw Weitzenkamp at the farm property after they left for separate lunch breaks. But law enforcement analysis of Bauer’s and Weitzenkamp’s cellphones showed they were both at the farm at the time of the killing. The cap and pants Bauer had on that day had gunshot residue on them, police said.
Law enforcement’s argued Bauer’s finances “had significant debt and was behind on bills,” and that he received calls that he could lose his home if he didn’t pay his debts an hour before Weitzenkamp was found dead. Trust documents disclosed to investigators that Bauer “would receive significant financial benefit” from Weitzenkamp’s death, prosecutors said.
Sibley County Attorney, Don Lannoye, said prosecutors were pleased at the verdict.
Roseville has joined the ranks of Minnesota cities with ordinances aimed at reducing the amount of Styrofoam and single-use plastic takeout containers in the trash.
On Monday, Roseville’s City Council unanimously passed a “Green To Go” ordinance, which requires takeout containers to be compostable, recyclable or reusable. Diners will likely see some changes when they pick up dinner.
“Any takeout food that they bring home from a restaurant, either if they’re getting takeout or if they’re bringing home leftovers from dining in, should be in something that they can put in the recycling bin, or it’s compostable,” said Noelle Bakken, the city’s sustainability specialist.
The city joins neighbors, including Minneapolis, St. Paul, St. Louis Park and Edina in enacting ordinances designed to make takeout containers more environmentally friendly.
The ordinance affects restaurants and food trucks, gas stations and convenience stores, grocery stores and schools. It does not affect hospitals and nursing homes, businesses with no retail food or beverage sales or caterers.
The ordinance includes utensils, though single-use straws may be available in dispensers or given to customers on request.
To-go container materials allowed under the ordinance include recyclable plastics (#1, #2, #5), metal and compostable plastic, paper or fiber products. No longer allowed are black plastic (including #5), Styrofoam and other plastics, including #4 and #6. Prepackaged foods and plastic films are exempt.
Bakken said the vote on the ordinance followed outreach with residents and businesses. Some businesses have been early adopters, and the city will help connect others to more sustainable packaging resources.
Star Tribune
Bloomington offers hopeful model for reducing police clashes with people in mental distress
For more than a quarter-century, James Ayers met with some of the most vulnerable residents in Minneapolis. As the former director of Walk-In Counseling Center, a free and anonymous counseling center on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis that is staffed by volunteers, he witnessed the value of accessible mental health services.
“The tendency is to take a policing approach, to correct it without getting into what the hell is going on,” he told me.
It’s also why he and other counselors have praised a Bloomington police pilot program that aims to help residents gain access to counseling services when they call 911 during an emergency. The department has been nationally recognized after hiring two marriage and family therapists to help people address life challenges that may demand a mental health professional rather than a police officer.
“The whole idea is that people generally don’t deal with mental health issues until there is blood on the floor,” Ayers said. “And you can get ahead of the game by providing services as soon as possible when people are asking for it. The whole rationale for a walk-in counseling center is that you’ve gotta make it easy for people to talk. And that’s done by privacy, professionalism, timeliness. What’s going on in Bloomington is a good start.”
When I was a child, a relative of mine endured a mental health crisis outside our church. I was too young to understand the totality of mental health then, but I remember the moment when police arrived. One by one, they surrounded him. I was afraid. He wasn’t harmed but the possibility seemed real.
Every police department — and many have partnered with mental health organizations in recent years — should employ resources to address individuals facing mental health crises, as those situations can quickly deteriorate. Counselors and therapists, Bloomington’s program has shown, may help residents find solutions and avoid those encounters with police. They may also help families and individuals process their collective challenges before they matriculate and lead to violence and damage in their homes and communities.
The complexities and problems in policing here and elsewhere are well-documented. The model in Bloomington is one that could work throughout the Twin Cities, but only if patients’ privacy is protected and not improperly used by police. There is value in independent counseling services, but those services are not always attainable for those who need them most.
In Bloomington, more than 4,000 people are uninsured, according to the department, and the service gives those people access to therapists whom they might not see otherwise because of that barrier. To many, 911 is the universal number to call when there is a serious situation they can’t resolve on their own. That’s a habit we’ve all developed over time. Yet, a call to that number should not always start with a police response. If anything, the presence of counselors allows for nuance and patience in these scenarios, says the Minnesota Counseling Association, the local chapter of the American Counseling Association.
