St. Croix River Crossing

[web]

That is what is called A+B contracting.....puts some emphasis on speed also

[Mdcastle]

It worked out that the actual cost monetary cost was $332.5 million (to be shared equally between MN and WI,), the remainder being the time component. The contract was awarded the first week of December and Ames/Lunda started mobilizing immediately because Mn/DOT wants pile driving done on the Minnesota side to be done during the winter when residents are more likely to have windows closed. Also another contract, to be paid entirely by Wisconsin was awarded for $4.7 million to H. James & Sons, Inc of Fennimore for the WI 35 overpass and some grading work in the area.

[PhilmerPhil]

If you want to rub salt in your wounds: http://strib.mn/1kuim8b

[mattaudio]

Just when I was nearly able to forget about it...

[phop]

If you want to rub salt in your wounds: http://strib.mn/1kuim8b

This portion is very unfortunate:

“It’s not a ho hum bridge. It’s going to have a unique style and character to it,” said Todd Streeter, executive director of the Stillwater Area Chamber of Commerce. “That bridge is going to become a landmark as much as the Golden Gate Bridge is.”

[Suburban Outcast]

The four-lane bridge, with its towering blufftop-to-blufftop design, is expected to stand as a monument to engineering, built to last 100 years and someday ferry as many as 100,000 vehicles a day between Washington County and western Wisconsin.

Doesn't the I-94 bridge only get 80K in AADT now? Most of that article was like listening to a used car salesman trying to sell a crappy car at a high price.

That Golden Gate comment made me laugh out loud, that was just as ridiculous as that "Interchange/Target Field Station is our "Grand Central Station"" comment in a past Strib article.

[Minneboy]

I know this fly over part of the country shouldn't have anything comparable to anywhere else or anything nice. What are they thinking?

[min-chi-cbus]

It's not that, but it's claims like the now 17,200 daily passengers who cross the Stillwater lift bridge swelling to 100,000 passengers after completion. Or the "ho-hum" bridge should eventually be regarded in the same international awe as the Golden Gate, which may be THE most iconic bridge in the world.

Other than fostering growth for Western Wisconsin and to a lesser extent, the Northeast metro area on the MN side, I don't understand the need to throw so much money into a project like this. It's a politician-turned-city-planner's bridge, not something the marketplace required.

[exiled_antipodean]

Now, actually this bridge will be more like the Golden gate bridge than the interchange be like Grand Central. When the Golden gate was built there wasn'tmuch residential out in Marin county, and to be fair there still isn't. A bbridge to if not nowhere, really only Sausalito. The Golden Gate did make a major highway, US 1, appreciably shorter compared to the alternatives, which the St Croix bridge doesn't do.

But I still think the comparison is a little silly.

[Mdcastle]

Interesting because 50,000 is where you start to have capacity problems with 4 lanes. I asked one of the engineers why they weren't building more lanes, or at least a bridge with the ability to add them, and he responded that with the current AADT the need for more than 4 lanes was so far into fantasy they couldn't plan for it.

I drove over the Golden Gate Bridge all the way through Marin County, and there seemed to be a lot there to me.

I see 91,000 on the official map for I-94.

[mattaudio]

Considering that the existing bridge was roughly 10k and AADT was decreasing, I can't imagine this bridge ever being over 20-25k. And the marginal increase will be induced demand due to the new bridge.

[Suburban Outcast]

It's not that I am against anything nice in that area (I like DT Stillwater). It's that I am questioning if a $675 million freeway expansion to a exurban area was really a good investment. Mdcastle, thanks for the update on the AADT.

l. When the Golden gate was built there wasn'tmuch residential out in Marin county, and to be fair there still isn't. A bbridge to if not nowhere, really only Sausalito. The Golden Gate did make a major highway, US 1, appreciably shorter compared to the alternatives, which the St Croix bridge doesn't do.

Yes, but southern Marin County is much closer to SF (10 miles between Sausalito and SF's Financial District) than what Somerset or New Richmond is to Minneapolis or St. Paul (30-40 miles), which I would think made it more possible for suburban development to happen. Even though many Wisconsin workers probably work in the eastern suburbs, that's still a 20-25 mile commute one way.

[Mdcastle]

According to the Mn/DOT traffic mapping application, the AADT on the existing crossing is 17,400. That's not what I'd consider "roughly 10K". The difference is significant since 10K is where you start thinking of 4 lanes.

As everyone knows, I'm thrilled about the new bridge, and I do like the design, but I kind of cringed with the comparison to the Golden Gate Bridge. Or the Sunshine Skyway or the Verazzano Narrows Bridge or anything like that. N We don't have any "signature" bridges around here like in other parts of the country (in fact the design of the St. Croix Crossing was chosen because it blended in the best). The nearest awe-inspiring bridge to us is the Great River Bridge in Burlington, IA, which I've been over a number of times. A cable stayed bridge has been considered here at various, but it was rejected for the St. Croix Crossing because they didn't want the towers to be visable from above the bluff line; it was rejected for the Dresbach bridge because of cost and navigational concerns with the nearby airport, and the Hastings contractors were given choices to bid either cable-stayed or tied arch design.

[mattaudio]

Indeed, it could have been a four lane bridge, like this one further down the river:
http://www.johnweeks.com/bridges/pages/sc01.html

[David Greene]

We don't have any "signature" bridges around here like in other parts of the country (in fact the design of the St. Croix Crossing was chosen because it blended in the best). The nearest awe-inspiring bridge to us is the Great River Bridge in Burlington, IA, which I've been over a number of times.

I don't know what your standards are, but we have several significant bridges and they all look better than the Great River Bridge IMHO.

- Mendota Bridge - world's longest concrete arch bridge at the time of construction
- Merriam Street Bridge - part of the old Broadway Ave. bridge; it's very ornate
- St. Anthony Falls Bridge (3rd Ave. Bridge)
- Stone Arch Bridge (not a roadway, but it is certainly a signature bridge)
- 10th Ave. bridge - on the NRHP
- Interlachen Bridge - William Berry Dr. over the Como-Harriet line, listed as one of the most significant bridges in Minnesota; http://www.mnhs.org/places/nationalregi ... heint.html
- F.W. Cappelen Memorial Bridge - admittedly this looked much better before it was gutted
- Intercity Bridge
- High Bridge
- Robert Street Bridge - on the NRHP and built by Chief Justice Warren Burger! (mmm...Burger...)
- Seventh Street Improvement Arches - one of the few skewed, helicoidal, stone-arch bridges built in the U.S.

I would say we have one of the best collections of river bridges in the country.

This doesn't even come close to listing all of the significant bridges in the Metro, much less Minnesota. Wood, Concrete, Stone and Steel is a fabulous book detailing these and more. http://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division ... -and-steel

[Tcmetro]

I have to say, I think that the Hennepin Ave bridge is one of the more beautiful 'new construction' bridges.

[Mdcastle]

I'm not sure where a Prescott style bridge would go at Stillwater. Unless you want to have a two lane approach road, (which was I find regrettable in the case of Prescott because it has one of the the highest volumes on a two lane in the state), a major reason why a bridge at the existing location was rejected was there's not a lot of room along MN-36-95, so expanding it to four lanes between the expressway on the MN side and the bridge would cause massive damage to the bluffs and parks. If you weave the road down lower somewhere else, again you're causing more damage to the bluffs than a straight, high shot across. (Had the environmentalist allowed the Braun alignment to proceed, that would have been less visually obvious and required less cutting into the bluffs, since it met in a natural low spot on the WI side).

Wisconsin still holds land they bought for the Braun alignment that I think they should make into parks rather than sell at the conclusion of the project.

As far as bridges- Yes, the Cappelan Bridge is kind of nice, but it doesn't make you got "that's **** awesome, like the Sunshine Skyway, the east span of the Bay Bridge at night in the fog, or the Golden Gate bridge do. We have a broad assortment of lesser bridges, but no real signature bridge.

[David Greene]

I have to say, I think that the Hennepin Ave bridge is one of the more beautiful 'new construction' bridges.

I entirely agree. I left it off my list because it's not historic but it certainly is beautiful.

[David Greene]

As far as bridges- Yes, the Cappelan Bridge is kind of nice, but it doesn't make you got "that's **** awesome, like the Sunshine Skyway, the east span of the Bay Bridge at night in the fog, or the Golden Gate bridge do.

I actually think the Sunshine Skyway is butt ugly. It is neither streamlined nor efficient. It's a pretty bland cable-stay span placed between the kind of overengineered bridges I used to build with Legos.

I find the St. Anthony Falls Bridge absolutely gorgeous. It is overengineered in the very good way - those piers are *massive* and quite impressive when viewed from the River Parkway.

And the Mendota Bridge? When I see it I certainly say ""that's **** awesome." And who doesn't find the Stone Arch Bridge breathtaking, even in its multilated form?

[mattaudio]

They could have used the old RR grade to four lane the approach from the expressway to DT. And DT they could have built calmed couplets northbound on the RR ROW and southbound on existing Main Street. Also, the replacement bridge could have approached via Myrtle St rather than Chestnut St, allowing more westbound vehicles to go up the hill without taking any turns.

One of the main problems with the existing bridge was queuing space when the bridge was up for river navigation. Four urban lanes, like Prescott has, helps solve that.

Also, I've crossed the Prescott bridge hundreds of times in my life, and I've never seen it congested. Also most of the traffic splits on the Prescott side (south 35 along river, or north 35/29 to River Falls/Ellsworth). If that's really one of the most congested two lane urban sections in the Wisconsin state highway system, it is less an indicator of a problem and more an indicator that Wisconsin is wasting far too much money on road building.