Staff Editorial: Time for a Sustainable Solution

By Jim Erkel

11/15/2011

Secretary Ray LaHood has brought a new direction to the U.S. Department of Transportation.  It is reflected in the Partnership for Sustainable Communities between the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Department.  The Secretary’s commitment to sustainability will be seriously tested this week when he meets with the congressional delegations of Minnesota and Wisconsin to discuss the legislation being pushed by Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sen. Amy Klobuchar to exempt a $690 million, blufftop-to-blufftop, freeway-style bridge on the St. Croix River proposed by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MNDOT) from the protections of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

In the Partnership, USDOT committed itself to helping communities improve access to affordable housing, increase transportation options, and lower transportation costs while protecting the environment.   This commitment is laid out in six livability principles -- providing more choices for transportation, promoting affordable housing, enhancing economic competitiveness, supporting existing communities, coordinating and leveraging federal investments, and valuing communities and neighborhoods.  MNDOT’s proposed bridge fails each of the Partnership’s  principles.  The bridge is a highway expansion into greenfields.  It is intended to support an out-dated pattern of residential and commercial development that necessarily relies on single-occupancy vehicles and will only add to the region’s congestion and air pollution.  It would continue a record of disinvestment in the region’s central cities and developed suburbs.  The fact that USDOT rejected MNDOT’s application for a grant to fund the proposed bridge under the TIGER program tells you all you need to know about the mismatch between MNDOT’s proposal and the Partnership’s principles.

In pressing forward with its proposal, MNDOT has turned its back on viable alternatives and longstanding critical highway needs that clearly outweigh the commuting needs of a small number of Wisconsin residents.  At MNDOT’s request, the Sensible Stillwater Bridge Partnership (SSBP) developed a proposal for a more modestly scaled alternative that would help solve some of the congestion problems in downtown Stillwater and cost almost $300 million less that MNDOT’s blufftop-to-blufftop bridge.  Minnesota could build the more modest bridge and use its share of the cost savings, about $160 million, on more immediate highway needs.  For example, Highway 52 between the Twin Cities and Rochester has serious design flaws that kill Minnesotans, most recently three in October, yet MNDOT hasn’t been able to find the funds to improve highway safety in a corridor that is critical to Minnesota’s economy.  MNDOT has refused to consider the low-cost, high-benefit potential of the SSB proposal, remaining stubbornly more intent on reducing the commute times of some Wisconsin residents than in protecting the health and safety of all Minnesota residents.

The SSBP alternative would cost less than MNDOT’s proposal and allow more critical highway needs to be met in Minnesota’s transportation system.  Based on research from the highway projects funded through the stimulus bill, more jobs can be expected from a number of smaller projects than from one big one.  In addition, smaller projects that fix existing infrastructure are more cost-efficient in the long-term than building a big new road that will cause even more congestion and add more fiscal tails to MNDOT’s maintenance burden.  Last, The SSBP alternative addresses the objections raised by the National Park Service to MNDOT’s proposal and obviates the need for the exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act that would be provided by the Bachmann-Klobuchar legislation.  Given this, Secretary LaHood will have his work cut out for him when he meets the Minnesota and Wisconsin delegations.  If his new direction isn’t simply a sustainability cloak for business as usual, Secretary LaHood will have to tell the delegations that he supports the position of the National Park Service and that MNDOT needs to switch to a low-cost, high benefit alternative like that proposed by the SSBP as the most sustainable solution to the transportation needs and environmental protection of the St. Croix River Valley. 

Jim Erkel is an attorney with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and directs MCEA’s land Use and Transportation Program.  He served as MCEA’s alternate in the stakeholder mediation process for the Stillwater Bridge.  MCEA is a member of the Sensible Stillwater Bridge Partnership.