Minnesota

[Mdcastle]

More St. Cloud Area Bridges


The Sartell Bridge, the building in the background is a paper mill. Archive Photo



The Bridge of Hope. The name is in honor of Jacob Wetterling, a boy that was abducted from nearby St. Joseph in 1989 and hasn't been seen since. The second photo was difficult to get, to get a good clear shot and avoid getting creamed by traffic when I needed to merge back on to the mainline I waited at the signal on the south end of the bridge facing west, then made a right turn when nortbound mainline traffic was stopped.



The old Sauk Rapids bridge.



The former causeway and abutment of the old Sauk Rapids bridge is now a pedestrian promenade and lookout.




The new Sauk Rapids Bridge.


Granite City Crossing. This replaced yet another deck truss bridge. After the I-35W bridge collapse it was discovered that some of the gussett plates were warped, and might have been since the day the bridge opened. Rather than repair the bridge and then close it again a short time later for replacement they opted to keep it closed and move up the replacement.

[Mdcastle]

The Hastings Bridge Part II


The new bridge and the old bridge. Hastings is still lamenting the loss of the Spiral Bridge that has been gone over 50 years. But when the present bridge was built there was absolutely zero interest in the city or anyone else stepping into save it. Just like now there's absolutely zero interest in saving the present bridge; I wonder if in a few years people will start lamenting the loss of it. I realize it can't stay as a road bridge under state law an it would need real money to fix it, but I question our priorities when they could have built a generic girder bridge and spent the leftover money on it, or why we're spending over a million dollars to move what's basically a stone garage in Oak Park Heights that most people have never heard of, much less care about.


Closer in view of the north pier.


I realize the composition is lousy from a photographic point of view, but this shows the relative location of the bridge and the arch.




The arch rises. Just about everyone driving by slowed down to look at it. The red color is presumably the final color, it looks like they're using a grey primer and then the red. The visualization shows more a dull red / terra-cotta, a color that's associated with the town because of the old brick buildings, other color options were grey or a deep blue. Maybe they expect the color to fade somewhat or maybe the visualizations are off.


The Flint Hills Nature Center is being used as a staging area. I found it amusing the nature center sign with a bunch of construction trailers immediately behind it. The riverfront path is detoured around the area. Those are 250 watt HPS lumiaires so it's certainly lit well at night.




Three views from the north. This was as close as I could get without trespassing.

[Alps]

Speaking of the spiral bridge:
http://www.usgwarchives.org/mn/dakota/postcards/spirbr.jpg

I've never seen an arch shaped almost round like that. Clearly an antiquated design.

[agentsteel53]

Speaking of the spiral bridge:
http://www.usgwarchives.org/mn/dakota/postcards/spirbr.jpg

I've never seen an arch shaped almost round like that. Clearly an antiquated design.

that is both the coolest and most rickety-looking thing ever.

[Alps]

Speaking of the spiral bridge:
http://www.usgwarchives.org/mn/dakota/postcards/spirbr.jpg

I've never seen an arch shaped almost round like that. Clearly an antiquated design.

that is both the coolest and most rickety-looking thing ever.

In terms of rickety, the Pulaski Skyway could have given it a good run before the massive rehab started a few years ago.

[Mdcastle]

A Bridge Too Far Gone?

So asked a Strib headline a couple of years ago. The saga of the Rock Island Swing Bridge, aka the J.A.R Bridge, is illustrated of the dilema of what to do with a bridge that's justifiably historic, but yet is also a "Rusty bucket of bolts) as one Washington County comissioner put it.

The bridge was built in 1894 as an locomotive // whatever things were on the road at the time bridge, with the top deck as a railroad. It originally operated as toll bridge until 1938

Rail traffic ceased in 1980. Even back then traffic on the Wakota Bridge, then an old tied-arch structure predating the interstate system, was bad, and in 1982 Al Roman of Chicagoland bought it and opened it as a toll bridge, naming it the J.A.R. bridge after the initials of himelf and his wife. The 75 cent toll was enough to operate it and make a small profit, but not enough for ongoing maintenance, and in 1999 a defective beam was found on the Washington County side and the bridge closed. Roman just walked away and stopped paying taxes, and the bridge was seized by the counties. They discussed going after the Romans for demolition costs, but they had few assetts and eventually Al died.

The bridge sat in limbo for years since the counties couldn't afford to demolish it, and many people wanted to save all or part of it. The approach road on the east was given to the oil refinery and sealed off, on the west it was officially closed but extremely easy to get to "unofficially", as there were just a couple of jersey barriers in the road. The need for an road crossing disappeared with the new Wakota Bridge, which after numerous delays due to cracks forming before it even opened and a spat with the contractor finally opened.

In fall 2008 the National Park Service held  a public open house at the bridge to make the case for saving it. They wanted the entire structure kept, although they acknowleged that with the reality of the situation they might have to settle for a couple of the fixed sections towards the center of the Dakota side, which were in the best condition and didn't interfere with navigation. Here are some photos from the open house of the bridge and the exhibits.

[NE2]

And it's since been reopened as a fishing pier: http://www.johnweeks.com/bridges/pages/b39.html

[Mdcastle]

Not sure why I'm bothering to post these since they're the same one John Weeks has, but here goes.











The National Park Service of course wanted the entire structure saved, but realistically that wasn't an option. While debate went on as to what to do with it and how to pay for it the bad beam on the Washington County side finally failed and part of the structure fell onto the shore. There was some question as to if people would even use it as an overlook, in the Midwest rivers are usually heavilly polluted and not something you swim or fish in.  At that point an emergency contract to demolish it was let. Wikipedia seemed to imply that the preservationalists got the demolition stopped when nothing but the two remaining sections were left, but on the other hand even before the NPS open house I saw a plan for saving only select sections of the Dakota County side.

There was no question about demolishing the Washington County side since part of it fell onto the shore and there is no public access, and the Swing Span was a hazard to navigation. Of the remaining spans, numbered 1-5 starting on the Dakota side, 1 was in poor condition, 2 was in fair condition, 3, 4, and 5 were in good condition, but 5 was close to the navigation channel. One plan was to demolish 1 and replace it with 5 and restore 2,3 and 4, but that was a fairly expensive option. Instead they demolished, 1, 2, and 5, replacing 1 and 2 with a standard pedestrian through truss, with the standard self-weathering steel it was a good aesthetic match. As a final hickup, a welding torch set the old wood deck on fire, but there was no real damage to the steel and the deck was replaced.

Whether there should be a local road crossing in the area is a good question, but I talked to a Dakota county engineer, and he said if one is desired they should start from scratch and build something new that's going to last 100 years, rather than try to rehabilate the old swing bridge for auto use. The Wakota bridge isn't congested and has aux lanes for local use, but I do think in urban areas there should be a local alternative to freeways. A logical point would be linking county road 22 and 26 a half mile south. It would have to swerve to miss the oil refinery but it would link to major county roads that have freeway interchanges with 52 and 10/61,

[texaskdog]

There is no crossing between IGH & Hastings.  They will need a crossing eventually.

[Mdcastle]

International Falls and Fort Frances Highway Scenes

All photos from Spring 2004.


MN 11 looking east crossing into Dove Island


The eastern terminus of MN 11. The white sign says "End state maintenance"


Sign with improvised MN 11 shield


US 53 commerical strip


Sign approaching US 53 and MN 11


Looking west at US 71 in the "downtown" area.


Looking northwest towards the bridge.


6 flags monument south of the bridge


Looking north at the bridge.


Now in the land where the beavers eat poutine. Looking south at the bridge




Junction ON 11 and ON 71. The sign in the last photo reads "Bridge to USA"


Downtown Fort Frances, ON 11


Abandoned ON 11 east of town, railroad grade crossing replaced by an overpass


ON 11/71 shields

[kphoger]

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/vv358/Mdcastleman/00257_n_12ahqrem6u0257.jpg[/img]
Looking west at US 71 in the "downtown" area.

http://i699.photobucket.com/albums/vv358/Mdcastleman/00310_n_12ahqrem6u0310.jpg[/img]
Downtown Fort Frances, ON 11

Why the distinction between "downtown" and downtown?

[Mdcastle]

I-Falls seemed rather sleepy, most of the commercial activity has moved to the US 53 commercial strip. FF has a commercial strip too, but there's a lot more activity still in the downtown area. Both pictures were taken in the middle of a weekday, but notice how busier the FF side seems.

[AsphaltPlanet]

How far into Northwestern Ontario did you go?

[NE2]

Definitely one of the more interesting border crossings.

[Mdcastle]

Definitely one of the more interesting border crossings.

Yes it is. For those of you not familiar with it, it's a crazy hodgepodge of customs and toll booths, rails, roadway, steam pipes, sidewalks; the rail and sidewalk are between the two traffic lanes. The southbound lane is part of the original 100 year old structure and has a weight limit, so if a heavy truck wants to go south they need to stop northbound traffic and route it south in the northbound lane.

How far into Northwestern Ontario did you go?

Not very far in the big scheme of things. This particular trip I just walked across from International Falls, the car I was driving blew an engine while I was passing throuh and I was stranded in the area for several days. On other trips I've been 1) from Rainy River to Fort Frances, 2) From Fort Frances to the Hwy 61 crossing, bypassing Thunder Bay on Hwy 130, and 3)from the Hwy 61 crossing to Thunder Bay

[Mdcastle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2umjNWDC9Q&feature=related
Short video on FYA's from the city of Burnsville, similar to Hydro's "talking outlets".

[Mdcastle]

A Bridge on the Move

September: the bridge is moved onto barges.



The lifting was going to be when I was in Virginia, but they kept postponing it until I was able to be back to attend. It was a beautiful fall day and the town was out to see it.



The old bridge was closed to prevent accidents from gawkers




For various reasons I wasn't able to get back out there until yesterday. They're going to need to repaint the mural.