St. Croix River Crossing

[mattaudio]

Even I would enjoy some photos.

[Mdcastle]

Well, OK.. Some earlier comments suggested that there was limited interest in road photos here. But I did update my profile even I haven't uploaded last weekends pictures to Flickr yet, so since people seem to be interested I'll post a few photos here now and then.

[Mdcastle]

IMG_5126 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Looking north on MN 95, the signals are for the new ramp terminals, the bridge is going to go between them.


IMG_5156 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Looking east from the new Beach Road bridge. The black steel in the background at left is work on Pier / Tower #7


IMG_5144 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Foundation for Pier/Tower #12


IMG_5142 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Pier/Tower #8 going up.


IMG_5173 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Where the ramps from MN 36 used to meet MN 95

Things will get more dramatic from a construction porn standpoint later in the summer as the towers start to reach their full height, and when the new WI 35 overpass opens it will be a good point to photograph it.

[mattaudio]

Monte, curious about stoplight assembly finishes. For a long time, the standard seemed to be that yellow and silver paint livery. The new assemblies look more like galvanized steel. Is it really galvanized steel or is it paint?

[Mdcastle]

That really is galvanized steel. Mn/DOT changed their standards from painted steel to galvanized steel about 5 years ago. A manager from Iowa, where they had used galvanized steel for years, came up, and Millerbend Mfg out in WInstead, where all of Minnesota's traffic signal steel comes from, opened a plant that could galvanize traffic signal pole steel. Mn/DOT considers the bare galvanized steel an acceptable final finish, and if a local agency wants it painted a color they now have to pay for doing so. The counties very closely follow Mn/DOT standards, so new county installations are similar.

At the same time they switched from aluminum or polycarbonate yellow signal heads to black polycarbonate. Using yellow was a 1950s era recommendation that was finally deleted in the 2003 MUTCD. This was before flashing yellow arrows were used, and using a 4 light head for all left turn setups only became a requirement last year (even if a flashing yellow arrow setup isn't used initially) so you see galvanized setups with the old standard 3 or 5 light left turn heads. There is also a new standard of a "doghouse" signal (one light in top center and the two lights on the lower right and left) for flashing yellow arrows on "option" lanes, where you can but don't have to turn left.

[Mdcastle]

IMG_5342 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Pier/Tower #8 a month later. They got an early start on this one since they could build a causeway from the Minnesota shore. They're going to start work on Pier/Tower #12 as soon as they can get barges into place. The idea is that when the towers are done they can start to install bridge decking in two different places without getting in each others way. Also, there's two casting yards, one where the new mainline will be on the Minnesota shore and a remote on on Gray Cloud Island.
IMG_5343 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
The casting yard.
IMG_5335 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
WI 35

Not mine, from the Facebook page, some aerial photos

[Anondson]

We could spend a lot of effort talking about the flooding from the wettest-so-far year since records have been kept, but related to this crossing... the Stillwater Lift Bridge is closed until waters recede.

http://www.startribune.com/local/264165741.html

[mulad]

That doesn't justify a blufftop-to-blufftop bridge, though. Something 5 or 10 feet higher than the existing lift bridge would have done the trick.

[mattaudio]

Maybe these closures are proof that a replacement isn't needed in the first place.

But, just like the 101 bridge in Downtown Shakopee, this shows the folly of spending insane amounts of money to provide mobility for the fraction of a percent of the time that these bridges are closed due to flooding. Granted, the Stillwater bridge needs rebuilding/replacement, but a bluff to bluff bridge can't be sold on open-during-flood value without making the value proposition immensely worse.

[HiawathaGuy]

That doesn't justify a blufftop-to-blufftop bridge, though. Something 5 or 10 feet higher than the existing lift bridge would have done the trick.

Except for the fact that the tall boats still would need a bridge that "lifted" then...

[mattaudio]

Is that really a big deal? Staffing a bridge tender for 8 months a year seems cheaper than the bridge cost.

[mulad]

A somewhat higher bridge wouldn't need to be lifted as often.

[Minneboy]

The piers are really moving along.

[Mdcastle]

It's been a few months since I've been out there (I'll go once they open WI 35) and I also have a paddleboat tour booked, but yes, there was a major milestone when they placed the first crossbeam (onto pier #8, the one that they were able to get a start on early because they built a causeway from the Minnesota shore)



Again, from their Facebook page

[David Greene]

It's been a few months since I've been out there (I'll go once they open WI 35) and I also have a paddleboat tour booked, but yes, there was a major milestone when they placed the first crossbeam (onto pier #8, the one that they were able to get a start on early because they built a causeway from the Minnesota shore)

Yay.

[mullen]

never been more meh about a transportation project ever. we really value our sprawl here.

[Mdcastle]

IMG_5630 by North Star Highways, on Flickr4
My own picture of Pier 8

IMG_5631 by North Star Highways, on Flickr

IMG_5612 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Casting yard. They decided to cast the pieces for the segments over land in Minnesota on site. That will result in cost savings, but drivers will have to put up with a single lane stretch of MN 36 between MN 95 and Osgood for another year because the future westbound on-ramp is being used for this.

IMG_5591 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Traffic signal nightmare at Osgood.

IMG_5552 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
New WI 35 Bridge

IMG_5557 by North Star Highways, on Flickr
Future WI 64 freeway.

[mattaudio]

The bridge and the new freeway grades really are monolithic.

[mister.shoes]

I flew right over this on Friday on my way to MI. The single most striking thing was how much farmland was being taken on the WI side. The piers looked pretty cool from the air, though. I must admit that.

[seanrichardryan]

Taking farmland or building big box commercial development opportunities?