Clang the bells and beep the horns, but not too loudly. Minnesota Public Radio and the Metropolitan Council have resolved their light rail concerns, and the Central Corridor project is back on track.

The groups had been battling for months about the possible impact of light rail trains rumbling past the MPR building on Cedar Street in downtown St. Paul. MPR claimed that the noise and vibrations would be felt and heard in their sensitive studios. The Met Council had said that the route couldn't be changed  and that engineering studies showed that the radio headquarters would be just fine.

As the Central Corridor enters the final planning and funding phases, there were concerns that the dustup could delay the project and that any delays could hurt chances for federal funding.

So there was some relief – and much back-slapping -- today, when the agreement was announced jointly by  Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell and MPR President Bill Kling.

“This is a good agreement,” Bell and Kling noted.  “It protects the integrity of the MPR Broadcast Center – a tremendous asset to our city, our community and our state – and moves the Central Corridor light rail project forward – a project that will be an economic and environmental boon for all of us.  It wasn’t an easy agreement – both sides had serious, legitimate problems and concerns to be addressed. And it isn’t a perfect agreement – everyone had to ‘give’ on items of great importance to reach this compromise. But it is a reasonable agreement, one that creates a framework for today and for the future.”

“This agreement is the product of months of painstaking work by consultants and staff of both the project and MPR,” Bell said. “It will protect the world-class broadcast facilities of MPR while keeping this vital transit improvement project on schedule and within budget. The Central Corridor LRT line is a vital element in the Council’s vision to expand our transit system, grow ridership and improve mobility for everyone. It also will provide improved access to employment, educational and economic opportunities along the corridor and beyond.”

“I’m pleased that we’ve reached an agreement that allows light rail to go forward and that largely protects our unique broadcast facility from the noise and vibration of the trains,” said Kling.  “The Met Council took our concerns seriously and worked with us to craft a plan that will address the most significant impacts of the LRT line running so close to our studios.”

Here are the steps that will happen under the agreement to protect MPR's headquarters:

• Install a 700-foot-long floating slab or its performance equivalent for the full length of the MPR building and two nearby historic churches to mitigate vibration and ground-borne noise from the train.  

• Move a planned crossover switch from a location near MPR to a new location north of I-94, removing another source of LRT-generated vibration.

• Work with MPR to design, install and pay for modifications to three MPR studios to achieve “acoustical isolation” from LRT-generated noise.

• Maintain LRT vibration levels below specific thresholds within 32 recording and broadcast studios in the MPR Broadcast Center.

• Restrict the use of train horns in a “quiet zone” in the area immediately surrounding MPR and the churches.

The Met Council will monitor the noise and vibration impacts of the line during its construction, testing and first year of operation to ensure the effectiveness of the mitigation plan and address any variances of agreed-upon mitigation criteria.

The council hopes to complete preliminary engineering on the project in September and obtain federal approval to begin final design, with the goal of starting construction next year and launching passenger service in 2014.