A busy stretch of Interstate 494 through the south metro will soon get a big makeover.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced $417 million will be spent on four projects as part of the Corridors of Commerce program.

Highlighting the program will be work on along I-494 at the crash-prone interchange with Interstate 35W and the addition of MnPASS lanes between France Avenue and Minnesota 77 along I-494.

“These projects will ease frustration for hundreds of thousands of commuters and improve commerce for the region by updating an interchange that has been in dire need of improvement for many years,” Bloomington Mayor Gene Winstead said.

While the work was celebrated in Bloomington, rural Republican lawmakers were upset. Two of the four projects to get funding are in the Twin Cities and two are on its edge. None of the projects is in what the rural Legislators consider greater Minnesota.

“It’s astonishing that MnDOT would select four projects with massive price tags all within 50 miles of Minneapolis and St. Paul,” House Transportation Chairman Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, said. “It’s clear that changes are needed to ensure a more balanced approach for the Corridors of Commerce program moving forward.”

Corridors of Commerce is designed to support transportation that helps Minnesota’s economy, such as improving roads between regional centers. MnDOT announced the four projects would split the $417 million in the next four years.

The four projects are:

Converting U.S. 169 in Elk River to a freeway. Cost: $157 million.

Interstate 494 from France Avenue to Minnesota 77 addition of MnPASS lanes. Cost: $134 million.

Interstate 494 at Interstate 35W, first phase of interchange work. Cost: $70 million.

Interstate 94 from St. Michael to Albertville auxiliary lane addition. $56 million.

MnDOT Commissioner Charlie Zelle said he understood the rural complaints.

“We also are disappointed that some of the projects that we considered of great critical nature” did not rank high enough for funding, Zelle said.

The department uses “very objective criteria and objective scoring system” to determine what segments of highway get funded, Zelle said.

Rural highways Minnesota 23 and U.S. 14 are next on the greater Minnesota list, he said, after the Elk River and St. Michael segments.

Even though the Elk River and St. Michael projects are near the Twin Cities, they technically are in greater Minnesota, Zelle said, and the department needs to use the same criteria from year to year. Funds are supposed to be split evenly between the Twin Cities and greater Minnesota.

MnDOT’s Twin Cities district is comprised of eight counties; the rest of the state is greater Minnesota.

Some lawmakers liked the announcement, at least if projects were in their areas.

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Road restrictions on I-94 Wednesday as beams installed in Dale Street Bridge in St. Paul “This is great news for Minnesota,” Rep. Paul Rosenthal, DFL-Edina, said about the 494-35W project. “Statewide users of one of the busiest interstate interchanges will now see much deserved and overdue congestion relief.”

Granite Falls Mayor Dave Smiglewski, Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities president, said the Tuesday announcement showed “a massive failure” to address statewide needs.

“There is far more to Minnesota than a 40-mile radius around U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, but you certainly wouldn’t know that from looking at the 2018 awards,” the mayor said. “We demand that the Legislature take immediate action to suspend MnDOT’s decision so that the program can be re-evaluated and brought in line with its original purpose.”