"By the time of the January 2022 announcement, the Metropolitan Council had already painted itself and its funding partners into a corner: some undetermined entity would have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in additional public monies regardless of whether the project continued," the report says. Instead, "throughout 20, the Council continued to make construction decisions as if the project's resources would increase." As of January, there is still a $272 million shortfall. The auditor's office also said that governor-appointed panel did not have a contingency plan in place to address funding gaps-and it didn't have money to halt the project either. The project was already behind as early as the fall of 2020. The Met Council announced in January of 2022 that there would be significant changes to the construction timeline and budget, but the project's key funders were aware for many months that the project was facing problems, the report found. The report determined that the Met Council, a regional planning entity for the Twin Cities metro, did not hold contractors accountable for changes to the timeline and solicited bids for construction leaving out key parts of the project. Since construction began five years ago, expenses have swelled by 38%, according to the 40-page report the Office of the Legislative Auditor, to a total of $2.77 billion. The 14.5-mile extension of the Metro Green Line from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie is the most expensive public works project in state history, with costs already more than double the initial estimates. MINNEAPOLIS - The Met Council wasn't fully transparent about the cost overruns and years of delays associated with the Southwest Light Rail transit line and proceeded with construction even though it did not have all the funds necessary to complete the project, a new report found.
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