How businesses can prepare for Central Corridor construction
The Metropolitan Council recognizes that construction of the line will have disruptive impacts on businesses along the corridor and will do everything possible to minimize those impacts.
Pedestrians on Fourth Street in St. Paul walk by crews opening the street in September 2009 to relocate public utilities in advance of Central Corridor LRT construction set to begin in late summer 2010.
To ensure that the businesses, property owners and residents are informed and engaged throughout the process, the Metropolitan Council hired a multilingual team of community outreach coordinators. The outreach coordinators will be businesses’ primary contact to the Central Corridor Project Office through the remainder of the engineering process and more importantly, the go-to people during construction.
Central Corridor outreach staff contact information.
Steps to mitigate construction impacts
The Metropolitan Council is taking several steps to mitigate the impacts of construction on businesses and residents:
- The outreach and construction staff will work with individual businesses to maintain access, including temporary driveways and walkways.
- The construction contractors will be required to include signage to direct pedestrians and vehicle traffic through the construction area.
- The outreach staff will keep the public informed about the project and upcoming construction activities in a variety of ways including weekly construction updates, public meetings, one-on-one meetings with businesses, 72-hour notice of utility shutoffs, and 72-hour notice of lane or road closures.
- The project office will provide communication tools people can use to submit construction-related concerns, including a 24-hour hotline: 651-602-1404.
See the Central Corridor construction communication plan.
Groups with business expertise to assist businesses
In addition to creating a loan fund, the Metropolitan Council is also working closely with several groups that have business expertise to assist businesses in other ways:
- The City of St. Paul has developed a parking program to mitigate the loss of on-street parking. See the City of St. Paul’s Parking Management Program.
- The Metropolitan Council partnered with the cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis and nonprofit organizations to create the Business Resources Collaborative.
- Resources are available online at www.ReadyForRail.net