'MnDOT ... questions whether any project could be built on the interchange' without risking some damage to the historic spring, Thomas Vasaly, an assistant attorney general said in a court hearing Tuesday. 'So the problem is the statute.'

"We simply can't comply with a law which says we have to remove any possibility that our project will have an impact on the spring," said Richard Stehr, the division engineer in charge of the project.
(quotes from 9-19-01 Star Tribune and Pioneer Press)

MnDOT finally admits that their design really does harm the spring.

This is rather revealing given that the simple technique of raising the road above the water table eliminates any damage to the spring. Why can't MnDOT do that? The problem is with a law that protects the historic Coldwater Spring? We say the problem is that MnDOT won't raise the road!

It's a question that MnDOT have refused to answer for the last two years. Why not raise the road?

A possibility is that hwy 55, hwy 62 and light rail all crosses over each other in the area. Because of height restrictions from the airport for low flying airplanes overhead, that has pushed the road down into the water table.

Come on MnDOT! Why not make one of the three cross over in a different place, so you only stack two high, instead of three?

The fact that MnDOT has now chosen to stop the project and play politics down at the capitol instead shows that they are not interested in a workable design that protects the spring. Their priorities seem to be somewhere else.