Ferries, anyone?
Posted on April 25th, 2008 – 10:45 AMBy James Shiffer
At 10 a.m. Friday, the decrepit Lowry Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis closed forever to traffic. An hour earlier, on the other side of town, the state closed the 46th Street bridge that spans the widening urban trench of 35W. The 50th Street bridge over 35W is still more air than concrete. Down in Richfield and Bloomington, the 76th Street bridge shuts down on Monday for six months and the American Boulevard overpass is already closed, the victim of improper roadbed fill. Further up the Mississippi in St. Cloud, the DeSoto Bridge was shut down abruptly in March because of warped gusset plates and will soon be demolished. And of course, it will be months before Minneapolis traffic can once again cross the Mississippi on 35W. The story’s not much better for those on foot: a little footbridge over railroad tracks in Dinkytown was shut down in March, and one of my favorite bridges, the 78-year-old pedestrian bridge that links Bryant Avenue over Minnehaha Creek, had plywood barriers installed on either end this month because of crumbling concrete supports and rusty bolts.
My diligent colleague Roadguy has been busy chronicling these disappearing bridges, and reports this morning that a Hennepin County Sheriff’s squad car with its flashers on was guarding the newly-abandoned Lowry Bridge.
If I’ve missed any missing bridges, please alert Roadguy.
23 Responses to "Ferries, anyone?"
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Interesting concept, James.
Will this also apply to the Strib?
Will you post all comments, or will you be selective or politically correct if the management doesn’t agree?
Robert, I think this is a concept that applies to our news organization as a whole. We will post all comments that abide by the online conduct provisions of our terms of use (http://www.startribune.com/help/11484216.html) .
In a nutshell, we can’t post comments that make factually false, harassing, obscene or defamatory statements. We want whistleblower readers to send us reports of suspected wrongdoing or negligence, but we’ll have to verify it before publishing anything about it.
How about a ferry for crossing the Mississippi River at Hastings? The Hwy 61 bridge will be down to one lane, and traffic backed way up, with LONG waits, while they are doing repairs this summer.
The East Brainerd Crow Wing County Road 25 spanning over the Mississippi North of Brainerd is also currently closed…
Thank you for responding. My guess is that this will be very similar to Kate Parry’s ex blog site where she would only post comments that she seemed to agree with. She would often post comments, and later delete them. This is similar to the editorial blog site which has virtually no activity.
I believe a blog site should be a forum for discussion. I fear your employer may not agree.
I guess we’ll see.
Well, I will be interested to see the crime drop off in NE. Verifiable factual evidence exists that when the Lowry Bridge was closed in prior years, crime in NE drops.
A great day for the people in the area.
I get the feeling that this blog is mostly populated by annoyed journalists.
But I will enter anyway.
Closing the 46th bridge when the 50th bridge is still down is lunacy. Can someone find out how this happened? Are the people who planned the reconstruction in Iraq working in Minneapolis now?
Off the top of my head you missed the old Cedar Avenue bridge which was being used by pedestrians to cross the river in Bloomington, but was closed a couple of years ago due to disrepair. The Wacouta bridge (boondoggle) has been half closed for years due to construction. Finally, the Lyndale Avenue bridge over 494 is set to close shortly for reconstruction creating the bridge closure tifecta between it and the American Blvd and 77th street bridges you already mentioned.
Robert-
Have you seen the comments on any of the Vikings related blogs/articles? That should be some indication of the level of comments this site is willing to publish. I would assume a coherent argument whether for or against the story would be published.
S Allexsaht says,
Are the people who planned the reconstruction in Iraq working in Minneapolis now?
What does that mean?
Have you been deployed?
Are you military/ex-military?
What “people” are you referring to?
Chris – Kersten’s blog is also an interesting indicator of the comments published here. Pretty ugly. And very few coherent sentences, much less arguments.
I’m thrilled the Lowry bridge is finally closed. It’s been a danger for a long time and although using an alternative route will be inconvenient, I’d rather be alive than save a couple minutes of drive time.
Northeast crime does drop when the bridge closes, but I think crime in North may be declining anyway.
I live in Richfield, on Portland Avenue. Between the closing of the Portland Avenue exit from the Crosstown, the planned closing of the Portland Avenue entrance onto the Crosstown, the closing of the 50th and 46th Street bridges, the closing of pretty much every way onto and off of the Crosstown from Lyndale and the upcoming closing of the one Lyndale access that’s left, and, if memory serves, the closing of a bridge over 494 because the roadbed is settling, expect an upcoming announcement: Richfield is officially being renamed “You Can’t Get There From Here”.
this is Minnesota. if there is a bridge near you, it is down or will be closed shortly. that’s just how it works here.
It is most assured that crime will drop in Northeast, if we could just dig a moat around north…….
Robert Grant you have issues, what is stopping you from actually discussing the topic at hand? Do you feel your knowledge about the subject matter is inferior and therefore feel the need to “selectively” call out other persons comments and opinions? You ruin blogs like these toolman.
Getting on track here, I think our biggest isue going forward is that the general public cries for MNDOT to keep us safe, but, they must walk a line that is better than what would have been acceptable before. Obviously, this will create an abundance of construction, re-construction and destruction that will occur at the same time and may not be ideal, but, safety is now the to priority and that might not coincide with convenience for quite some time.
Let’s just fill in the Mississippi with gravel and be done with it.
McLuvin has a good point. They had discussed closing the 35W bridge for repairs at one point and decided against it because it would have been too inconvenient for people.
When tragedy strikes, everyone says something ought to be done. But if they have to sacrifice anything, forget it. After 9/11, everyone said first responders should get more funding. Most are still underfunded and struggle to acquire the appropriate equipment to respond to any kind of disaster, much less that on the scale of 9/11 or Katrina. Tax cuts and wars took priority and increasing responder funding would have required taxes from somewhere – except people don’t want to pay it and politicians don’t want to ask for it. Until that changes, our infrastructure will continue to fall apart.
McLuvin,
You mean just like the example I used to illustrate the previous post by S Allexsaht which had nothing to do with the topic being discussed?
Almost like going from bridges to Iraq?
Good point, McLuvin.
Apparently the Franklin Ave Bridge I live oh lets say half a block from is structurally deficient. But it’s only because it’s “Scour Critical; Foundations determined to be unstable for calculated scour conditions” aka if the Lock and Dams suddenly burst open in a 100 year flood, it might take good ol’ Cappelen down with it. Fortunately it was built by a Norwegian and Norwegians know stone and concrete!
It appears to me — a person with a West to East commute — that the plans to take down the bridges over 35W were not thought out very well in advance of the projects (I am reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City right now — and the poor planning of the Iraq invasion is on my mind). I also assume that this plan, or lack thereof, was made WELL in advance of the 35W collapse–so I assume that that is not an excuse. I will be delighted it someone can shed light on the process that has me scratching my head each day to figure out how to get to work.
So it has been reported that the Lowry bridge will start demolition next week. Was this work already bid out? How much are we paying in a change order to have the contractor start months early? When this was bid who has rights to the salvage steel?
Mpls Simpleton – eh, the criminals will haev it dismantled for free for scrap. Why pay someone to do it. *snicker* You know, I was wondering if the Broadway bridge between Washington and Marshall would be closed? Everyone complains it “bounces” and “isn’t safe” – but I never saw a problem with it, seemed like one of our better bridges. Lots of bridges have “bounce” built into them to adjust to heavy traffic….anyone have insight?
Even though I used to rely on several of the closed bridges for car travel, the one that bothers/saddens me the most is the Bryant footbridge. What a wonderful bridge that was… a family favorite. Also, to cross from north to south to go to the library, it’s the best (only?) way to go with a stroller… The alternative footbridges require hiking up a bunch of steep steps (or hill) to get up to Lyndale. The Bryant bridge was much more fun than just taking the Minnehaha Pkwy sidewalk. Anyone know if the bridge will be replaced?
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