Project Manager Newsletter
November 2024
Apologies for the belated November edition of the PM Newsletter. With the late holiday last month and flurry of activity on the project recently, I wanted to provide an update once things quieted down and also elaborate on this month’s topic: equity and health priorities.
The project team recently held meetings to share with the public, as well as local partners, our engagement results from the recent Phase 1A work to determine whether Hwy 252 should go over or under local roads. Stay tuned as we will be posting that information to the project website soon.
Equity and health are priorities
MnDOT developed the equity and health priorities for the Hwy 252/I-94 study through an Equity and Health Assessment (EHA) which was conducted from January 2021 to May 2023. The EHA identified top focus areas to advance health and equity and was based on community engagement and an analysis of existing conditions in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center and north Minneapolis.
The EHA process produced three reports on baseline conditions (EHA Report #1), community priorities (EHA Report #2), and assessment impacts (EHA Report #3). These reports can be reviewed on the project website under the EHA tab.
Report #3 included recommendations and priorities on how to consider equity and health in the scoping phase and into the EIS.
There are three priority categories in EHA Report #3: community livability, roadway safety, and transportation equity. All three categories have several focus areas under each. These include:
- Community Livability - reducing traffic volumes; improving air quality; reducing traffic noise and light pollution; reducing the impervious surface on roadways; preserving homes, businesses, and community resources in neighborhoods; promoting a sense of safety and security in neighborhoods
- Roadway Safety - reducing crashes on the highways, local roads, and with bicycles and pedestrians
- Transportation Equity - increasing access to destinations and distribution of benefits and burdens
The report recommends actions to take in all these focus areas.
These actions have been taken very seriously by MnDOT and have led to additional commitments to improve equity and health that look at all these areas during the EIS process. These commitments include:
- Community Livability – assess and disclose projected traffic volumes, travel times, and patterns on local roads; assess air quality impacts; targeted engagement with communities on specific ways to improve public health and equity along the corridor; assess noise and light pollution impacts; evaluate light pollution outside of rush hour travel; evaluate visual impacts and show visualizations; assess additions in impervious surfaces; assess property impacts
- Roadway Safety – analyze projected crashes on the corridor and local roads
- Transportation Equity – integrate local and express bus service improvements; provide pedestrian and bicycle facilities; evaluate and disclose transportation benefits and burdens
We are looking forward to having these conversations with you all and working toward solutions together. I am grateful to have you all participating in this environmental study.
Question of the month
We are introducing a new recurring feature to the newsletters: question of the month. The community has been very engaged with us about this project, regularly providing feedback and questions. Each month, we will highlight recurring key questions. We are delighted to have this opportunity to share answers to your questions.
Question: How will property acquisition work for this project, and how many homes are being impacted?
One of the most important questions we are hearing from the community is how the process of acquisition is managed, controlled, and explained to the community.
To be clear: we have a general idea of potential property impacts currently, but specific property impacts will not be identified until further in the environmental review process after MnDOT has identified preferred alternative, but we hope this information is useful.
There are many rules and regulations that govern the progress of this project including property acquisition. One of the objectives for this project is to minimize relocating homeowners and renters or also known as a relocation. MnDOT is carefully reviewing potential property impacts for each road option. MnDOT's evaluation estimates that the most impactful option could involve 64 relocations, while the least impactful option involves nine properties.
If the acquisition of private property is required, MnDOT will follow the federal law called the Uniform Relocation Act. For example, affected property owners will be contacted, appraisals will be undertaken, and fair market value will be determined. Relocation assistance is also available to affected property owners and renters.
For additional information about potential property impacts, review MnDOT’s August public meeting videos on the meetings webpage.
Community members are encouraged to reach out to MnDOT by email or phone if you have specific questions about your property.