Table of Contents 

Background

The Long-Range Highway and Transit Capital Project lists summarize planned regionally significant highway and transit capital projects within the planning time frame of this Transportation Policy Plan (2025-2050). These projects will be planned and implemented by the Minnesota Department of Transportation (highways), the Metropolitan Council and Metro Transit (transit), or other local agencies. These lists do not include projects on minor arterial highways or nontransitway systems; those projects are listed in the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP).

Transportation Improvement Program

All known regionally significant local projects are included here and in the Transportation Improvement Program. The federally required Transportation Improvement Program for the Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul region – as defined by the U.S. Census Bureau and the Met Council to consist of the seven counties of Anoka, Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott, and Washington, and the contiguous urbanized areas of Wright and Sherburne counties – is updated each year by the Transportation Advisory Board and the Met Council.  

Federal transportation regulations require that all federally funded transportation projects within the region be included in the four-year Transportation Improvement Program. The Transportation Improvement Program is prepared by Met Council staff with assistance from the Minnesota Department of Transportation. It is a fiscally constrained four-year program for project delivery, which means anticipated revenues and estimated project costs balance over the four-year period covered by the program. The current Transportation Improvement Program is available on the Met Council website.  

Regionally significant projects

The Federal Highway Administration defines regionally significant projects as those that serve regional transportation needs that would normally be included in the modeling of a metropolitan area’s transportation network, including at a minimum all principal arterial highways and all fixed guideway transit facilities that offer an alternative to regional highway travel.  

For highways, regionally significant projects include the following project types on principal arterials:  

• Adding or removing a lane (for example, general-purpose lane, managed lane, an entirely new roadway, or continuous auxiliary lane that extends more than one interchange).
• Constructing a new interchange on an existing or developing freeway, adding or removing a new ramp movement at an existing interchange.

For transit projects, regionally significant projects include:

• Adding a new transitway including arterial bus rapid transit, highway bus rapid transit, dedicated bus rapid transit, light rail, commuter rail, and modern streetcar.
• Adding or removing one or more transitway stations, including extending existing transitways (does not include minor station relocations that are part normal planning and engineering).
• The addition of a permanent park-and-ride facility (for example, not leased) with a capacity of 250 or more stalls.

List contents

The Met Council will update the following lists as needed through amendments to the Transportation Policy Plan. These lists are not and cannot be interpreted as a project programming document. These lists summarize planned regionally significant projects in the fiscally constrained plan (where estimated project costs are equal to anticipated revenues) and includes each project’s:

• Primary investment category  
• Project location (called “route”)
• Project description  
• Estimated cost
• Approximate implementation time frame

These lists are exhaustive only for highway managed lanes, interchanges, targeted regional capacity, and transitways. When new projects are identified for funding in these four categories, they must be amended into the Transportation Policy Plan. For more information contact Met Council long-range transportation planning staff. 

Long-Range Highway Projects 2025-2050

Table 18.1 shows all planned regionally significant highway projects in the region. Programmed projects are in the Transportation Improvement Program and all regionally significant highway projects are mapped in the Highway Investment Plan. Each of these is fiscally constrained. The Highway Investment Plan shows additional projects that are part of a longer-term vision and not formally part of this fiscally constrained plan. This list only includes those projects that meet the definition of regionally significant and fall into mobility categories of interchanges, managed lanes, and targeted regional capacity.