Metro Transit and the Metropolitan Council (local Metropolitan Planning Organization), in cooperation with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), Hennepin County and the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), are constructing an 11.6-mile Light Rail Transit (LRT) line within the Hiawatha Corridor. The LRT line will operate on the Hiawatha Avenue/Trunk Highway 55 Corridor linking downtown Minneapolis, the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) International Airport, and the Mall of America (MOA) in Bloomington. The Mall of America station is still under construction.
The project includes a 1.5-mile tunnel under the MSP airport runways and taxiways, 26 light rail vehicles, and a total of 17 stations, with 12 stations on the Hiawatha Corridor, three stations in Bloomington, and a station serving the Mall of America. The project expects to serve 24,800 average weekday boardings by 2020.
The total project cost under the FTA Full Funding Grant Agreement (FFGA) is $675.42 million. The Section 5309 New Starts funding share for this project is $334.28 million.
The project utilized the design-build method with separate contracts for light rail vehicles (24 to 26 cars) and airport tunnel. Two tunnels are being built adjacent to each other to carry northbound and southbound train traffic. Each tunnel is 7,400 feet (1.4 miles) in length. Crews have completed boring both north and southbound tunnels, and are working on the Lindbergh Terminal and Humphrey Terminal stations. The Metropolitan Airports Commission is overseeing construction of the tunnels and both airport stations. The Hiawatha entered revenue service on July 1, 2004, and in its first week of revenue operation it carried 93,000 passengers. Early projections were for weekly trips to average 55,400. The week did include three home games by the Minnesota Twins, but this is estimated to have made a difference of just 12,000 trips.