Events & Tours: 2025 MAASTO Annual Conference

The METRO Green Line Extension is anticipated to begin revenue operations in 2027. As of December 2024, the project is over 80% complete. It will operate on 14.5 miles of double track from downtown Minneapolis through the communities of St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Minnetonka, and Eden Prairie, connecting to the existing Green and Blue Lines and the communities of St. Paul and Bloomington. This tour will focus on the Kenilworth Corridor to Cedar Lake Channel. The Kenilworth Tunnel is the project’s most complex structure due to its challenging soil conditions and its proximity to buildings, freight lines, and trails. The tunnel is anticipated to be structurally complete in spring of 2025, with electrical and communications systems being installed in the tunnel in 2025 and 2026. The tour will provide a compelling overview of how transit projects come together during the critical systems testing phase and highlight the engineering challenges of building in tight spaces, managing right of way impacts to property owners, and the reconstruction of a historic Works Progress Administration (WPA) cobblestone wall in the Cedar Lake Channel. Tour is a partnership between MnDOT and Metropolitan Council.

Safety first, safety always. Safe and secure operating environments save lives, prevent injuries, increase employee morale and productivity, cultivate trust, and enable the efficient and effective use of transportation facilities, services and technologies. During this tour you’ll meet with subject matter experts to learn about the different equipment MnDOT uses to keep employees safe on the job. Find out how MnDOT is using a mobile slip simulator to reduce employee slips, trips and falls. You’ll have an opportunity to try it out. Check out the Road Doctor Survey Van to learn about its nondestructive road survey technologies to gather and visualize pavement data. Learn how MnDOT uses high rescue angle equipment to train for different rescue scenarios. More equipment will be onsite to see.

The tour will include visits to two labs that support transportation-related research projects at the University of Minnesota. The labs are part of the College of Science and Engineering and are home to engineering experts who bring an interdisciplinary approach to solving today’s problems.

The facility provides a powerful tool for investigating the effects of earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, and other extreme events on large structural components up to several stories tall. The tour will begin at the Multi-Axial Subassemblage Testing (MAST) Laboratory, the largest test system of its kind in the world. The tour will conclude at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL), located on the banks of the Mississippi River, a unique and world-class research space for all things water… and then some. The lab addresses major societal challenges associated with fluid flow problems in the natural environment and in renewable energy applications.

This tour features stops at MnDOT involved/led projects in Downtown Minneapolis. Projects include the recently completed Third Ave Bridge project (MnDOT led), the Stone Arch Bridge project (MnDOT led), and innovative North Loop Green partnership project. These projects highlight MnDOT’s transportation vision where Minnesota’s multimodal transportation system maximizes the health of people, the environment and our economy. 

The Third Avenue Bridge is significant as the last major reinforced-concrete Melan arch bridge constructed in the Twin Cities. The Stone Arch Bridge has been through about half a dozen projects to expand, repair, or rehabilitate the structure over its almost 140-year history. The North Loop Green is an activation project under I-94 ramps adjacent to the C Ramp and Target Field, home of the Minnesota Twins, and operating as a public-private partnership. A stop at the ABC Parking Ramp also makes time to see the 100-foot hand-painted Prince mural.

MAASTO 2025 Tours

Light Rail Construction Project Tour: Green Line Extension

MnDOT Safety Experience Tour: Safety on the Job

Research Lab Tours: University of Minnesota

Bike Tour: Downtown Minneapolis (6.5-mile ride)

MAASTO 2025 Golf Tournament