Wakota Bridge

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This article or section contains information about a bridge currently under construction.
It may contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as construction progresses and new information becomes available.

Wakota Bridge
Carries	Current bridge: Four lanes of Interstate 494; new bridges: Five lanes in each direction
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	South St. Paul, Minnesota-Newport, Minnesota
Maintained by	Minnesota Department of Transportation
ID number	5993
Design	Current bridge: steel-tied arch span; new bridge: segmental bridge
Longest span	Current bridge:421 feet; new bridges: 466 feet
Total length	Current bridge: 1870 feet; new bridges: 1889 feet
Width	Current bridge: 48 feet; new bridge: Five lanes in each direction
Clearance below	64 feet
Opening date	1959
Coordinates	44°52′59″N, 93°00′54″W

The Wakota Bridge is being re-built to carry Interstate 494 between South St. Paul and Newport, Minnesota across the Mississippi River, replacing a four-lane span built in 1959. The name is derived from the two counties it connects, Washington and Dakota. Lunda Construction Company had won the bid to build a new 6-lane west-bound span, remove the existing bridge, and build a new east-bound span, all to be completed in 2007 for $250 million. The discovery of hairline fractures by a third-party inspector delayed the west-bound span's opening by a year. The fractures were not believed to be a safety hazard, however it was thought that the degraded quality would diminish the expected 100-year effective life of the bridge. Repairs were made and it was opened to traffic in the summer of 2006. All traffic was diverted to the new span, to allow for destruction of the old Wakota bridge and subsequent re-building of the east-bound span.

On December 29, 2006 the Lunda Construction Company was released from its contract to complete the new eastbound span, due to disagreements between the company and the state about delays and cost overruns. Expected completion of the spans and related work on shore, including an enhanced interchange with U.S. Highway 61, is in 2009.^[1]

The previous bridge at this location, also named the Wakota Bridge, was built as one of the first segments of Interstate 494. With two lanes in each direction, it was likely designed as a part of the Minnesota State Highway 100 beltline around the Twin Cities, and did not meet interstate highway standards. The lack of a third lane or shoulders on the bridge, as well as a lack of acceleration lanes from entrances on either side of the bridge, created traffic bottlenecks exacerbated by heavy truck traffic on the ramps leading to the bridge.

[edit] See also

List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

[edit] References

Charles Laszewski (December 2, 2005). Repairs delay I-494 bridge opening. St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Interstate 494 in Minnesota at steve-riner.com
Segments, Summer 2004 (pdf). American Segmental Bridge Institute (Summer 2004). Retrieved on 2006-05-20.
Frequently Asked Questions. I-494/Highway 61 Wakota Bridge. Minnesota Department of Transportation (May 2006). Retrieved on 2006-05-20.
Costello, Mary Charlotte (2002). Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge, Volume Two: Minnesota. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications. ISBN 0-9644518-2-4.