News Release

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Lt. Gov. Carl Molnau, who is also the state Transportation Commissioner, recently moved Minnesota’s first pay-for-use express lane ahead by accepting recommendations from a group created to examine the project.

The I-394 Express Lane Community Task Force, formed by Molnau to make operational recommendations on the project, met for its final meeting Oct. 28 and approved its final report.

“The Task Force did an incredible job,” Molnau said. “Its members worked through and resolved some difficult issues and provided Mn/DOT with an excellent set of operational recommendations for the I-394 MnPass express lane.”

During the 2003 session, Minnesota lawmakers gave Mn/DOT authorization to charge a fee to single-occupant vehicles for using high occupancy toll or “HOT” lanes. As part of those efforts, Molnau created the Task Force, which was composed of state and local elected officials, transit representatives and private citizens who live or work along the I-394 corridor.

Minnesota’s first express lane project, know as theI-394 MnPass Express Lane, will use existing car pool lanes on I-394 from Highway 101 to I-94. Drivers of single occupancy vehicles, currently restricted from using HOV lanes, will be able to use the MnPass lanes by paying a fee. Transit riders, motorcyclists and car pools will continue to use the express lane free of charge.

The lane is expected to open in Spring 2005. It will be a totally electronic toll collection system that uses an electronic device called a transponder to determine when cars are in the lane and how much toll to collect. It will also use a dynamic pricing system that will increase the toll price as congestion grows in the general purpose lanes, and decrease as traffic decreases, to control the amount of traffic in the MnPASS lane.

The project is not adding any actual lane capacity. Rather, it is taking advantage of the capacity that now exists in the HOV lane, which is good resource management, Molnau added.

“In addition to increasing capacity and removing bottlenecks, taxpayers expect us to better manage what we already have,” Molnau said. “The I-394 MnPass express lanes are a good example of how we are making innovative use of existing infrastructure to offer drivers another choice in managing their trip times.”

For more information, visit www.mnpass.org.

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