The Minnesota Department of Transportation’s plan to spend the entire $417 million Corridors of Commerce road funding on metro-only projects illustrates the reason the program was established in the first place and indicates how far awry it now wanders.

But that’s not the worst of it. MnDOT claims half of the money will go to Greater Minnesota projects even though those projects fall squarely in the Twin Cities Metropolitan Statistical Area and are just a few miles from Hennepin County, the most populous county in the state.

MnDOT’s new scoring system, as directed by the Legislature, for the Corridors of Commerce program is clearly flawed. A project to make Highway 169 a freeway in Elk River, eliminating traffic signals and building four interchanges at a cost of $157 million, is considered “rural” Greater Minnesota. This is the approximate cost of completing about half of the remaining 25-mile stretch of Highway 14, which was not included in the funding.

Another “Greater Minnesota” project will add a convenience or auxiliary lane on Interstate Highway 94 from St. Michael to Albertville, going from four lanes to six. Again, that MnDOT considers this “rural” Minnesota is just a sham.

The two metro projects receiving the rest of the corridor funding, at about $204 million, include an interchange at Interstates 35W and 494 ($70 million) and adding MnPASS convenience lanes on the road from France Avenue to State Highway 77 at a cost of $134 million.

The expansion of Highway 14 to a four-lane from Owatonna to Dodge Center at a cost of $185 million just missed the cut, coming in third in outstate projects.

The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities President and Granite Falls Mayor President Dave Smiglewski called the MnDOT decision a “massive failure” for outstate and called on the Legislature to immediately overrule Transportation Commissioner Charlie Zelle.

House Transportation Committee Chairman Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, said important projects in outstate Minnesota, including Highway 14, are “being completely ignored by this metro-centric project list,” and he called for changes to the Corridors of Commerce program.

And it’s clear MnDOT needs to change its definition of “Greater Minnesota.”

The Republican caucus did a great deal of bellringing in the last election, declaring it would defend outstate Minnesota interests against the evil metro legislative cartel. Well, when it comes to this road funding, the score is $417 million for the metro and 0 for outstate.

We call on Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature to overrule the MnDOT decision and re-allocate to outstate projects that deserve it. The changes made last year to the MnDOT scoring system clearly favor metro-area projects and hurt outstate road funding. Those changes must be reversed.

— Mankato Free Press, May 2