SF4163

Purpose

• The bill changes Minnesota transportation planning by repealing greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment requirements and by creating a new, long-range planning framework for highways. It also updates how transportation funding and projects are organized and prioritized to focus on preservation, safety, and mobility.

Main Provisions

• Repeals greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment requirements in transportation planning and related statutory provisions.
• Requires a new 20-year Minnesota state highway investment plan, created within one year after each revision of the statewide multimodal transportation plan.
• The 20-year plan must:
  • Include performance targets based on objectively verifiable measures.
  • Cover preservation and maintenance of the structural condition of state highway roadways, bridges, pavements, roadside infrastructure, and traveler-related facilities; safety; and mobility.
  • Summarize trends and impacts from the past five years.
  • Analyze how the department’s capital investments and priorities over the past five years affected each target (including a comparison of projected costs vs. actual costs).
  • Identify investments needed to meet targets over the next 20 years.
  • Project available state and federal funding for the 20-year period and note any special funding opportunities.
  • Propose strategies to use existing transportation infrastructure efficiently and maximize the benefits of projected funding.
  • Set investment priorities for the planned funding, including a schedule of major projects or improvement programs and the expected costs and impact on targets.
  • Identify any targets unlikely to be met over 20 years and propose alternative ways to reach them.
  • Establish procedures for capacity expansion project development that conform with specific statutory provisions (161.178, subdivision 2, paragraph a).
• Require alignment of the plan with goals in Minnesota Statutes 174.01, subdivision 2, clause 9, and other related goals.
• Include guidance on capacity expansion project development to ensure consistency with relevant law.

Significant Changes to Law

• Repeals provisions related to the transportation greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment and related statutory sections (including several parts of 161.178 and 161.1782, and a provision in 174.49, as specified in the bill).
• Amends Minnesota Statutes to require a new, formal 20-year state highway investment plan tied to the statewide multimodal transportation plan.
• Shifts emphasis in planning from greenhouse gas impact assessments to long-range, performance-based investment planning for the state highway system and related projects.
• Changes the way funding, project scheduling, and capacity expansion are planned by focusing on performance targets, past investments, and future funding projections.

Implementation and Timing

• The commissioner must prepare the 20-year state highway investment plan within one year after each revision of the statewide multimodal transportation plan.
• The plan must use objective performance targets and present a clear view of expected costs, funding, and strategies for meeting goals over the next two decades.
• The plan must identify targets not expected to be met and propose alternative approaches to meet them.
• The capacity expansion procedures must conform to the referenced 161.178 provisions.

How it affects Transportation Planning

• Moves Minnesota toward a more structured, performance-based, long-range planning framework for highways.
• Emphasizes preservation, safety, and mobility as core targets and requires detailed reporting on past investments and future costs.
• Reduces or eliminates reliance on greenhouse gas emissions impact assessments in transportation decision-making.
• Aims to improve planning for major projects, funding prioritization, and capacity expansion in a way that integrates with the statewide multimodal plan.

Relevant Terms state highway investment plan, 20-year plan, state trunk highway system, statewide multimodal transportation plan, performance targets, objectively verifiable measures, preservation, maintenance, structural condition, bridges, pavements, roadside infrastructure, traveler-related facilities, safety, mobility, capital investments, funding, state and federal funding, capacity expansion, project development, major projects, improvement programs, alternative strategies, 161.178, subdivision 2 paragraph a, Minnesota Statutes 174.01 subdivision 2 clause 9, greenhouse gas emissions impact assessment, repeal, Minnesota Statutes 2024, Minnesota Statutes 2025 Supplement, section 174.03 subdivision 1c, section 174.49 subdivision 6, and related provisions.