The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced it is seeking project recommendations for Corridors of Commerce projects. The agency has $400 million set aside to fund projects over the next four years.

“Corridors of Commerce has been an outstanding way to fund projects that connect Minnesota businesses to customers and workers to new job opportunities,” said MnDOT Commissioner Charlie Zelle. “We look forward to seeing recommendations from across the state that offer improvements that will enhance the way the state transportation system supports Minnesota’s economy.”

MnDOT will take recommendations via an online submission form at www.mndot.gov/corridorsofcommerce. Recommendations will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. Feb. 5. The agency will then score, rank and award funding to the recommended projects. It will use a system recently developed after a public outreach program seeking input on how best to rank the projects.

Eligible project recommendations may come from anyone in the public. The project eligibility and scoring criteria are available on the submission web page under the “Detailed process and criteria” link.

MnDOT will not submit any project recommendations in this solicitation round.

The project award announcement will occur sometime in April. For more information about the program or the recommendation process, contact Patrick Weidemann at Patrick.weidemann@state.mn.us or 651-366-3758; or Mark Gieseke at mark.gieseke@state.mn.us or at 651-366-3770.

Gov. Mark Dayton and the Minnesota Legislature created the Corridors of Commerce program in 2013 to invest in projects that support commerce in the state, but that are not already considered in the state’s transportation investments plan. It has provided more than $330 million to dozens of projects across the state.

In 2017, Dayton and the Legislature provided an additional $300 million in trunk highway bonding over the next four years as well as $25 million a year in cash. This additional funding will reduce Minnesota’s annual $600 million transportation funding gap by $200 million for each of the next four years. However, despite the investments made last session, Minnesota will still face a $600 million annual funding gap every year beginning again in 2022.