The City of Minot plans to pursue a federal grant for an overpass over the BNSF Railwa line at 27th Street in east Minot.

The Minot City Council on Monday, Jan. 5, voted to switch direction in its grant efforts to focus on the overpass project.

The city had planned to apply for a federal grant to study rail crossings through the 11-mile corridor from the west edge of Minot through Surrey. City Engineer Lance Meyer said the intention was to develop a grant request that aligned with the federal funding opportunities.

However, funding opportunities have changed, he said.

“This administration is very pro-project – let’s get it built, and less so on the study phase,” he said. “So, our previous approach likely was not going to be successful.”

Rather than proposing a study, Meyer recommended focusing on a point project that the city believes would be successful in attracting a federal grant.

BNSF feels so strongly that the 27th Street project can obtain a grant that it has offered to take on a larger cost-share if successful, Meyer said. Minot would pay about $50,000 more than anticipated with the corridor study, but BNSF would pick up nearly $370,000, depending on the scope of the project, or more than half the local share of the project, he said. The remaining cost to the city would be about $150,000.

“It is a good long-term project for the city especially with some of the development activities that are rapidly moving ahead. We know that in the future, if this continues to develop and then other industries spur off that development, eventually, this is going to be a needed project,” Meyer said. He called the federal funding specific to grade separations of this type a once in a generation occurrence.

“I think the city can get a good win here if you put together a project that promotes our long-term economic success in northeast Minot. We’ve already invested a lot of money in utility infrastructure to make sure that area can develop, and then we can take advantage of the partnership that we have with BNSF,” Meyer said.

He added the grant application is a first step. The grant would fund engineering to understand property impacts, costs and environmental issues. The city could then go after a federal construction grant.