St. Croix River Crossing: The Next Hurdle is in Oak Park Heights, Where the Bridge Will Be Built

For supporters of the St. Croix River Crossing Project the smell of victory is in the air, but there are a few hurdles yet to be cleared.

First, in the next nine days President Barack Obama has to sign the bill exempting the $690 million project from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Yesterday, . Rep. Michele Bachmann and Sen. Amy Klubuchar have each said they expect that will happen given the wide margin of passage in the House and the unanimous vote in the Senate.

Another hurdle is the fact that the city of .

Thursday’s House vote was clearly a victory for the city of Stillwater, Oak Park Heights Council Member Les Abrahamson said Tuesday night, but there are some local issues yet to be resolved.

“While this seems to be a popular project with most folks in the St. Croix Valley, I am most concerned about the disproportionate cost burden being placed upon the residents and businesses of Oak Park Heights,” he said. “This regional project needs a regional cost solution.

“This is only moving forward due to an exception requiring Congressional approval,” Abrahamson continued. “So far, we have been unsuccessful in reaching an agreement with MnDOT as to Oak Park Heights' cost concerns.

“I'd ask the State to demonstrate the same willingness for exception shown by Congress to the new home of the St. Croix River Crossing - Oak Park Heights. “I'd ask those who have lobbied so hard to get this done to now come to our aid.”

There are issues that still need to be worked out on the state level regarding this project, Mike Zipko of the Coalition for the St. Croix River Crossing said. One issue is conducting structural load tests in the river; another is gaining municipal consent for utility relocation in Oak Park Heights.

Congressional approval to exempt the project from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act allows MnDOT to move on to the next layer of the project, Zipko said, and part of that will be dealing with the issues in Oak Park Heights.

On Jan. 31, the Oak Park Heights City Council .

“We are very much concerned about the utility relocation money that was redirected someplace unknown in the process of amending this project,” Oak Park Heights Mayor David Beaudet said at that time. “We’re very concerned because it is the single biggest cost-effect to the city.”

Because of the cost impact the project may have on Oak Park Heights, the city has not granted municipal consent.

The consent MnDOT refers to is from a 1995 agreement that was signed for a project they couldn’t build because it violated the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Beaudet has said.

While the city of Oak Park Heights and MnDOT have recently been meeting about the issue, there is some contention.

The biggest disagreement between the two entities is the relocation of utilities on the stretch of Highway 36 between Oakgreen and Osgood avenues.

Currently, MnDOT’s plan does not include the replacement of utilities on that stretch of highway. The four scenarios being discussed—and it’s cost impact on the city—is laid out on page 37 of this report.

Utility relocation along Highway 36 is estimated to cost about $20 million, according to the Oak Park Heights resolution. The project could increase the city’s property tax an extra $400-500 a year for the next 10 years.

Other issues yet to be worked out include the cost of traffic signals, frontage roads along Highway 36, drainage ponds and trails.

Prior to Thursday’s vote it was unclear if the project would be allowed to move forward, so dealing with the state issues would have been premature, Zipko said.

“Now we can get together with Oak Park Heights, work on the next phase of the project and solve problems on the state level,” Zipko said. “That couldn’t happen until Congress did what they did.”