(UPDATE) Did Partisan Politics Halt Bren Road/HWY 169 Project?

Just days before the Bren Road bridge was set to be demolished, construction on  has come to a screeching halt.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has informed Minnetonka city officials that, in the event of a government shutdown on July 1, they would exercise a clause in their contract with the city allowing MnDOT to rescind previous approval for work along Highway 169. Without MnDOT approval, construction would be prohibited and would stop.

In a letter on Wednesday to Transportation Commissioner Thomas Sorel and Governor Mark Dayton, Minnetonka City Manager John Gunyou called MnDOT's threat "political maneuvering."

“This project is now in jeopardy, perhaps the potential victim of political maneuvering seemingly more designed to inflict as much pain as possible during the looming state shutdown,” Gunyou wrote. “[This] is completely unrelated to the shutdown and utterly unnecessary … It seems as though MnDOT staff is going out of its way to ensure the project is stopped.”

Right now, a stalemate over Minnesota's looming $5 billion deficit means the state is headed towards . Because the regular legislative session ended without a budget deal, Dayton and Republican leaders now have until July 1 to reach a compromise.

According to Gunyou, the MnDOT move came after a week of back-and-forth negotiations between MnDOT and the city. MnDOT had sent a notice to municipalities across the state, including Minnetonka, warning that projects involving state funding would be suspended in the event of a state shutdown. 

“Instead of working with us, it’s like they kept finding ways not to work with us,” Gunyou told Patch. “It was one thing after another. Why are they going out of their way to put up roadblocks?” 

Funding Already in Place

Minnetonka has maintained that the MnDOT notice shouldn't apply to the Bren Road/Highway 169 interchange project. According to Minnetonka’s city attorneys and the League of Minnesota Cities, the 169/Bren Road project has multiple funding sources, and the state’s share of the funding has already been appropriated and paid.

“We’ve got [MnDOT’s] check and cashed it,” Gunyou said. “It’s in our bank.”

MnDOT officials haven't responded to requests for comment about Gunyou's charges or to questions about halting projects that have already received funding.

Besides state contributions to the $15 million project, much of the funding came from local businesses, including $5 million from United Health Care, money the city expects to receive next week. Also, the city of Minnetonka is fully administering all phases of planning and construction for the project, meaning MnDOT does little heavy lifting during the actual construction phase.

“We have all the legal liability and financial liability. At this point, their role is virtually nothing,” Gunyou said.

Victims of Politics?

With the project paid for and requiring little from MnDOT itself, the question has been raised: Is MnDOT’s move more about politics than roads?

“It’s in the middle of this political fight,” Gunyou said. “We don’t want this to be a big public fight about this, but in the last couple of days, they backed us against a wall.”

But Rep. John Benson (DFL-Minnetonka) said Friday he did not believe the move was political.

“I don’t think it’s politically motivated...that there are some political machinations going on, but simply that MnDOT is just following guidelines,” he said. 

Benson has spoken with city officials and communicated their concern to the Governor’s office, but said that he has yet to hear back from the administration. In the meantime, Benson isn’t hopeful that the project will continue without delay.

“I’m not confident that we will get [MnDOT] to change their mind or to recognize the fact that this project is not state-funded and that they should allow us to move forward on it," he said. 

Gunyou, who says he has reached out to state legislators who represent Minnetonka including Benson, predicts that a delay to the project would cost Minnetonka taxpayers an additional $2.75 to $3.10 million dollars—a 20 percent increase on the project, and almost one-third of the city’s annual budget for roads.

“For MnDOT, it’s no skin off their nose,” Gunyou said. “If this costs another $3 million, it’s our taxpayers who will have to foot that bill.”

Gunyou also warns that the MnDOT move could translate into a one-year delay of  “1,400 permanent [and] critical jobs."  The project, almost five years in the works, is designed to relieve current congestion and accommodate the next 20 years of development in the Opus Park business area. Since April, crews have been working towards the replacement of the Bren Road Bridge that spans Highway 169, while also adding through lanes and turn lanes and upgrading new trails and sidewalks around the interchange. The project was scheduled to wrap up by November 2011.

Minnetonka's Appeal: 'Do The Right Thing'

In his four-page letter, Gunyou appealed to the transportation commissioner to allow the project to move forward.

“The decision to proceed is yours alone, and we are asking that you do the right thing by allowing this project to continue,” he wrote.  

Gunyou has asked for a response by noon on Monday, June 27. In the meantime, the city has put a two-week delay on the Bren Road bridge demolition, which had been scheduled for this weekend.

“We have only delayed the demolition, not cancelled it entirely," Gunyou said. "We are still hopeful that everyone involved will do the right thing and allow this project to continue, regardless of the state shutdown.”