Contact: Mark Anderson
MnDOT construction project manager
Office: 507- 205-6402
Cell: 507-429-6302
Email: mark.w.anderson@state.mn.us
For Immediate Release
Brief daily Hwy 63 traffic delays at Red Wing Bridge begin Jan. 21 for girder unloading
RED WING, Minn. — Motorists may experience brief traffic delays at the Highway 63/Eisenhower Bridge in Red Wing beginning Monday, Jan. 21, as crews unload steel tub girders for the new bridge, according to the Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of transportation.
Flaggers will be stopping traffic near the bridge to allow the girders to be delivered by semi tractor-trailers between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. to allow the oversized trucks to deliver the girders into the site and back out onto Highway 63 to depart. As many as three deliveries each day will occur, as crews begin installing the steel tub girders on the Minnesota side of the bridge from the abutment to Pier 1. Traffic will be stopped approximately 15 minutes, but delays may be longer as traffic backs up. Deliveries are expected to occur through early-February.
Flaggers will be on Highway 63 in Wisconsin and at the buttonhook ramp at Highways 63 and 61.
The deliveries are coming from Veritas Steel in Eau Claire, Wis., where they were manufactured. The pieces that will be launched from the south abutment range from 46 feet to 70 feet long by 9 feet tall for a total length of 216 feet. The span over the river is 432 feet with seven sections bolted together, ranging from 9 feet to 14 feet tall. The weight of each section is roughly 140,000 pounds.
Once crews have completed work on the Minnesota side of the bridge in February, deliveries of girders will occur on the Wisconsin side to connect the tub girders to Pier 3. Flaggers will again be on Highway 63 to aid the delivery trucks entering and exiting the site, but delays should be shorter.
The Highway 63/Eisenhower Bridge project includes building a new bridge to replace the Highway 63/Eisenhower Bridge, replacing the historic slip ramp Highway 63 Bridge over Highway 61, reconstructing approach roadways in Minnesota and Wisconsin, improving access to Red Wing and upgrading pedestrian and bicyclist crossings. The prime contractor on this $63.4 million construction project is Zenith Tech. The new bridge is expected to open to traffic by fall of 2019.
Learn more about the project or sign up for email updates at MnDOT’s project web site http://www.dot.state.mn.us/d6/projects/redwing-bridge/. You can also follow a Facebook page for this project at https://www.facebook.com/RedWingBridgeProject/.
Motorists should always be attentive, drive with caution, slow down in work zones and never enter a road blocked with barriers or cones. For real-time traffic information in Minnesota, call 511 or visit www.511mn.org.