State lawmakers are considering a sweeping change to how Minnesota builds mega transportation projects as frustration over the handling of the controversial Southwest Light Rail continues to grow.

At a committee hearing late Wednesday, Senate Transportation Chair Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, spoke in support of his bill that would take the job of building future light rail projects away from the Metropolitan Council and give that responsibility to the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Dibble blasted the Met Council for delays and massive cost overruns in construction of the Green Line Extension, also known as Southwest Light Rail, which is now projected to cost $2.86 billion and is not expected to begin service until 2027.

Dibble specifically cited a recent report by 5 INVESTIGATES which revealed that a new section of light rail tracks was laid about a foot too close to existing freight tracks near West 21st Street in Minneapolis. 

“It’s just another piece of evidence that this agency is not well suited to manage and oversee this construction,” Dibble said. “It’s not some grand sweeping thing that happened all at once. It’s death by a thousand pinpricks.”

No one from the Met Council testified about Dibble’s bill at the committee hearing, but MnDOT Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger spoke in opposition.

She thanked Dibble for his confidence in her agency but insisted that shifting large light rail and bus rapid transit projects to MnDOT would cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would require it to hire employees they don’t have.

“MnDOT continues to be challenged in filling positions in construction,” Daubenberger said. “We have more open positions than applicants and we have difficulty competing with the Met Council and local agencies for construction employees.”

Lawmakers will now have to consider whether to include Dibble’s proposal in a larger omnibus bill later this month.