ENG Metro Transit broke ground on the Gold Line’s reach into Minneapolis. The agency started construction last week on extending the bus rapid transit line to downtown Minneapolis, with a groundbreaking for a new enhanced station at I-94 and Snelling Avenue near Allianz Field. The Gold Line opened in 2025 between Woodbury and Union Depot in Saint Paul, running mostly in bus-only lanes. It will travel on I-94 shoulders between the cities, serve the existing 7th and 8th Street stations, and reach the Green Line extension’s Royalston Avenue/Farmers Market station when the extension opens in 2027. The new station adds ticketing, real-time signs, heated shelters, and camera and emergency-phone safety features.
Source: Star Tribune, Aug. 9
FUNDING Minneapolis lined up money to study three of the nation’s most-blocked rail crossings. The city accepted a $2 million Federal Railroad Administration Railroad Crossing Elimination grant and $266,000 from MnDOT to study grade separation at the Lyndale, Humboldt, and 45th Avenue North crossings in the Camden neighborhood, with Canadian Pacific Kansas City adding $50,000 to the Connecting Camden effort. Federal data ranks the crossings among the most frequently blocked in the country. At the Lyndale Avenue North crossing the city counted 559 blockages of 15 minutes or more in a single year, 11 of them lasting an hour or more. A 2024 study produced eight separation concepts, and the new work could settle on a preferred design, with construction possible in 2031 or 2032 if the city wins build funding.
Source: Star Tribune, Aug. 9
BIZ One bad contract cost AECOM its quarter. The global engineering firm reported fiscal third-quarter results on Aug. 10 netting an $84 million loss, or $0.65 a share, and adjusted earnings of negative $0.50 a share, after a $337 million pre-tax charge on a single construction-management project. AECOM said the job was awarded in 2019 under terms it would not accept under its current risk policy. The firm expects substantial completion in the second quarter of fiscal 2027, and is pursuing recovery claims that may take years to resolve. Outside that charge the quarter was strong. Backlog reached a record $27.8 billion, up 13 percent, on a 1.6 book-to-burn ratio and $4 billion in design wins.
ENG Two large solar farms cleared Minnesota regulators. The Public Utilities Commission approved site permits on Aug. 7 for two utility-scale solar projects in western Minnesota. Gopher State Solar's project in Renville County and Coneflower Energy's project in Lyon County together would add 435 megawatts. They are expected to reach operation in late 2027, with Gopher State spreading panels across 977 acres.
Sources: Minnesota PUC, Gopher State Solar; Coneflower Energy
POLICY The federal government moved to widen metals tariffs again. The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security opened a comment period on Aug. 6 on adding 14 more derivative products to the Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, and copper. The list reaches items that touch construction and contractors’ fleets, including electric conductor cable, fire extinguishers, heat-exchanger parts, self-propelled cranes, tanker and other trailers, and filled steel containers for propane and oxygen. Most would carry the 25 percent rate, with 50 percent on the metal value of filled containers and 15 percent on certain agricultural trailers. Comments are due Aug. 27. Each round of derivative coverage pushes more embedded metal cost into equipment and building-system pricing.
Source: Federal Register, Aug. 6
ENG New York is studying a first-of-its-kind thermal network to cool the subway. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, with the city and state, will spend $800,000 on a feasibility study of a thermal energy network that would pull heat off subway platforms, storing it underground and sending it to nearby municipal buildings in winter. The test site is the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall and Chambers Street complex, where summer platform temperatures average 96 degrees. A contract award is expected this fall, with design as early as 2027 if the site proves suitable.
Source: ABC7 New York, Aug. 10
WORKFORCE A regional roundup makes the case for tech-forward practice as the infrastructure law lapses. A Prairie Business feature published Aug. 11 surveys how Upper Midwest transportation firms are working differently as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s funding expires in September. It describes a shift toward data-driven delivery through artificial intelligence applied to signal timing and infrastructure monitoring, digital twins and model-based deliverables, LiDAR drone survey, and Safe Streets and Roads for All safety design. Regional firms including Houston Engineering, Apex Engineering Group, and Ulteig tie the moment to the talent pipeline, and the piece notes ACEC’s work engaging students from elementary through high school to widen it.
Source: Prairie Business, Aug. 11
Close out the summer on the field - ACEC Minnesota’s Foundation Softball Tournament brings 16 member-firm teams together on Saturday, September 19 to support the next generation of engineers, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November. Sign up for both before spots fill up!
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.