A project that has delivered both promise and pain to parts of St. Paul has reached the halfway point. Central Corridor Light Rail Transit (LRT) officials say the 11-mile project that will link Minneapolis and St. Paul via Washington and University avenues is 50 percent complete and on schedule to be 75 percent completed by year's end. Service is slated to begin in 2014.

Workers near the Metrodome this week are connecting the Hiawatha Light Rail Line, which runs from the Mall of America in Bloomington to Target Field in Minneapolis, to the 10-mile Central Corridor line from downtown St. Paul to downtown Minneapolis, which is scheduled to open in 2014. It marks the first time since the trolleys of the 1950s that the two cities have been linked by light rail, officials say.

The president’s proposal would cut payroll taxes and offer incentives for employers to hire. In Minnesota alone -- the plan would send more than $600 million in hopes of creating nearly 8,000 jobs.

A few early supporters of the rail project tell MinnPost that if they knew how bad business would get, they wouldn't have supported it in the first place. About two dozen businesses along the rail line have closed up since construction started.

The University Avenue Betterment Association says the city isn't doing enough to help them with their struggling businesses -- trapped in the middle of the construction. St. Paul officials say they'll review their programs to help those merchants next month.

Top officials in charge of the project traveled to Chicago to have a "frank discussion" with the general contractor's executives after a series of serious problems, including environmental violations, unsafe streets, delays and communication failures. Minnesota Public Radio says it reviewed hundreds of documents that spell out the problems plaguing the monumental project's first year of construction. "Things must change in 2012," one official said.