Charles Hymes, design manager for the Central Corridor project for the Met Council, said that plans call for the two lines joining up about 2,000 feet southeast of the Metrodome. There will be no station at that juncture, but the Central Corridor line will add a new West Bank station.

“The biggest overall challenge was finding the right way to get through the University of Minnesota campus,” Hymes said.

University of Minnesota representatives have unsuccessfully advocated for the line going through Dinkytown.

Hymes noted that it’s still early in the life of the project and that much work remains, adding that “We’re really just getting into preliminary design.”

In a poetic touch, whistles from the Hiawatha LRT line, which stops directly in front of City Hall, could be heard on the third floor conference room where the open house was taking place.

Seven bound volumes of engineering drawings and details totaling 1,200 pages sat largely untouched at the open house.

Preliminary engineering work is slated to continue through the end of August. Construction on the 11-mile Central Corridor line is set to begin in 2010 with completion set for 2014.

The project budget, which has gone up and down over the years, currently sits at $892 million.

The open house served as a preamble to a public hearing Tuesday afternoon before a special meeting of the Transportation & Public Works committee of the Minneapolis City Council.

“We will not be taking action today, we will be listening,” said Minneapolis City Council Member Sandy Colvin Roy, who chairs the committee, at the outset of the public hearing.

Colvin Roy noted that the city would accept additional comments in writing through the end of the business day Monday, June 9.

The matter comes before the committee for a vote June 10. If it moves forward then, it would go before the full Minneapolis City Council on June 20.

Travel time between the two downtowns on the light rail line is estimated to be 37 minutes.