Ramsey County Board Workshop on Bronze Line Bus Rapid Transit - August 5, 2026
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Ramsey County Board Workshop on Bronze Line Bus Rapid Transit - August 5, 2026
The Ramsey County Board held a workshop on August 5, 2026, to discuss the Bronze Line Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project. The workshop provided an overview of the project, proposed capital grant agreement, cooperative project delivery agreement, and public works staffing plan. No votes were taken. The capital grant agreement is scheduled for board consideration on August 18, 2026.
Discussion Items
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Project Overview: The Bronze Line is a 10-mile BRT route from Union Depot to Maplewood Mall, with 22 stations (17 new). Fifty percent of the alignment is dedicated guideway. The project aims to improve mobility, safety, and multimodal access. Key statistics: 28% of trips are work commutes, 64% of trips are expected from households without cars, and 97% of trips involve walking, biking, or transferring between transit lines.
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Funding and Delivery: The project is 100% locally funded. Approximately 90% comes from Ramsey County (regional railroad authority levy and county-controlled sales tax), and 10% from the Metropolitan Council. The project is delivered through an integrated approach: Ramsey County handles roadway, utilities, streetscape, and pedestrian improvements; Metro Transit handles stations, transit systems, fleet, and dedicated bridges.
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Technical Issues: Presenters highlighted several technical challenges:
- RK Station proximity to the Pay Phelan community, with requests to move the station closer to Arcade Street.
- Coordination with Walk on TP (a Dakota-led nonprofit) on daylighting Phalen Creek along the Bruce Vento Trail, where the county will reconstruct the trail and guideway.
- Johnson Parkway Bridge proximity to the Real Life Cooperative retirement community (50 feet from the building); the county is exploring shifting the bridge.
- Reconstruction of Pennsylvania Avenue, Maryland Avenue, and White Bear Avenue, with efforts to minimize property impacts and maintain business access.
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Staffing Needs: Public Works identified a need for additional staff in engineering, traffic, right-of-way, and communications to deliver the project. These positions will be funded through project funding sources, not the general levy.
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Board Questions and Discussion: Commissioners raised questions about:
- Funding breakdown between the levy and sales tax (currently expected to be 50/50, but may change).
- Decision points and thresholds: a project decision board comprising three Ramsey County elected officials and two Met Council members will approve scope, cost, and schedule changes at 30%, 60%, 90%, and 100% design. Items over $150,000 require board approval.
- Business support during construction: Commissioners emphasized proactive communication, technical assistance, and a business resiliency inventory, rather than direct grants or loans.
- Inclusion of benches at BRT stations for aging residents.
- Request for a future workshop on pedestrian and bicycle lane design across multiple projects.
Key Outcomes
- No formal votes were taken at the workshop.
- The Capital Grant Agreement will be presented to the board for action on August 18, 2026.
- The Cooperative Project Delivery Agreement is still under negotiation and will be brought to the board later in 2026.
- Staffing increases were endorsed, funded by project sources.
- The board agreed to hold future workshops on specific topics (e.g., pedestrian/bike lanes) to provide ongoing oversight.
Meeting Transcript
We are gonna start. That's really fun information. Welcome. Welcome to the Ramsey County Board Workshop. Today's workshop is titled Bronze Line Bus Rapid Transit. And courtesy reminder that this board workshop is recorded and it is live streamed on Zoom webinar. So people can be can be uh watching us. There will be no votes taken during the workshop. And then we'll start with the introduction of commissioners and presenters around the table, and then we'll proceed with the rest of the room. So I will start with Commissioner Mary Joe McGuire, Commissioner District 2. Tara Chemin Singh Commissioner District 1, Rena Moran, Commissioner District 4, Lane Becker Commandant. Steven Smith, uh Senior Transportation Planner and Bronze Line Project Manager. Jennifer Jordan, Manager Transit, Multimodal. Mike Rogers, Deputy Director for Public Works, Multimodal Planning. Kelly Miller, Commissioner District 7. Go in there. Commissioner District Six. Right. And let's start that. Someone back there. Yeah. Sorry. Harry Collins, Deputy County Manager, economic growth and investment. And why don't you tell us about the hundred-year cookies while you got brought those in? It's unrelated to the topic. But they're doing an internal celebration to celebrate 100 million dollars invested over the last five years in a portable housing. Just cookies now. Yes. Oh, just big celebrations. New cookies in two weeks. Yeah, new. Okay, thank you. Great. Congrats. Uh Dan Bark, how he's there. Seth now our multi-roll planning intern. Amy Barnes are senior transportation planner. Rick Barco, government relations special first day. Next three. And should I go for the Latin Commission of District 5. Wonderful. Thank you all for being here. We really appreciate it. Congrats again on the 100 million investment, which we'll be hearing more about in the next few weeks. So the purpose of today's discussion is to provide an overview of the project, the proposed capital grant agreement, the cooperative project delivery agreement, and the public work staffing plan before these items come before us for future consideration. The capital grant agreement is scheduled to come before the board for consideration on August 18th. And this is all in regards to the Bronze Line Bus Rapid Transit. This project has been a long time in the making. It reflects years of planning, a public engagement, and strong collaboration between Ramsey County, Metro Transit, City of St. Paul, the City of Maplewood, and many other partners.
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