Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)

An Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) provides a means to analyze environmental, social and economic factors and consider environmental impacts, alternatives and mitigation strategies in the planning and decision-making process.

A Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is the initial statement prepared by the project sponsor and circulated for review and comment before a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is prepared.

In April 2006, the Ramsey County Regional Rail Authority published a DEIS for the proposed 11-mile transit improvements between Minneapolis and St. Paul following University and Washington Avenues. See history of the project.

The Metropolitan Council, as the lead agency, is responsible for completing the FEIS during preliminary engineering. See project timeline.

Note: The DEIS is very large document which has been divided into several files in PDF format, which you can read using Acrobat Reader software. It may take several minutes to download the larger chapters, depending on your internet connection speed.

Cover and Table of Contents (9 pages, 4.3 MB)
Summary (35 pages, 4.1 MB)
Chapter 1: Purpose and Need (24 pages, 2.4 MB)
Chapter 2: Alternatives Considered (32 pages, 4.9 MB)
Chapter 3: Social and Land Use Impact Analysis, part 1 (44 pages, 4.7 MB)
Chapter 3: Social and Land Use Impact Analysis, part 2 (37 pages, 5 MB )
Chapter 3: Social and Land Use Impact Analysis, part 3 (23 pages, 5.6 MB )
Chapter 4: Environmental Impact Analysis, part 1 (44 pages, 4.8 MB)
Chapter 4: Environmental Impact Analysis, part 2 (33 pages, 5.5 MB )
Chapter 5: Economic Impact Analysis, part 1 (42 pages, 4.8 MB)
Chapter 5: Economic Impact Analysis, part 2 (22 pages, 5.6 MB )
Chapter 6: Transportation Impact Analysis, part 1 (30 pages, 3.7 MB)
Chapter 6: Transportation Impact Analysis, part 2 (31 pages, 5 MB)
Chapter 6: Transportation Impact Analysis, part 3 (15 pages, 5.4 MB)
Chapter 7: Evaluation of Alternatives (31 pages, 2.9 MB)
Chapter 8: Public and Agency Involvement Program (19 pages, 1.5 MB)
Chapter 9: Appendices
- 9.1 List of Preparers; 9.2 Distribution List; 9.3 List of Supporting Documents; 9.4 Data Sources; 9.5 Programmatic Agreement, 9.6 Potential Hazardous Material Impacts, 9.7 Listed Species (48 pages, 3.5 MB)
- 9.8 Traffic Operations Report, part 1 (45 pages, 4.7 MB)
- 9.8 Traffic Operations Report, part 2 (44 pages, 6.4 MB)
- 9.8 Traffic Operations Report, part 3 (44 pages, 3.9 MB)
- 9.9 Noise and Vibration Technical Report (67 pages, 4.6 MB)
- 9.10 Metro Transit Services, 9.11 Glossary, Comments and Correspondence (11 pages, 1 MB)