Work to fortify some gusset plates on the Interstate 535 John A. Blatnik Memorial Bridge will start as soon as next Monday and take about one month to complete, according to the Minnesota and Wisconsin Departments of Transportation.
Significant traffic impacts will occur during the project when alternate sides of the bridge will be closed to all traffic. The two separate closures will last about two weeks each.
During these closures, motorists will use a detour consisting of Superior city streets, the Richard Ira Bong Memorial Bridge (Highway 2) and Interstate 35.
Like all highway construction work, the project will be weather dependent. Rain or high winds, a common occurrence in the Blatnik Bridge area, could affect the project's schedule.
Ames Construction, Inc. of Burnsville, Minn., and its sub-contractor, Danny's Construction Company of Shakopee, Minn. will complete the project for the approximate cost of $1,064,000.
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Because the bridge is jointly owned by Wisconsin and Minnesota, the states will share equally in the repair costs.
In May, two lanes of traffic on the bridge, which carries Interstate 535 between Duluth and Superior, Wis., were closed after calculations and field inspections discovered that gusset plates in several locations on the bridge did not meet the bridge's load requirement.
In January, the National Transportation Safety Board issued an alert regarding gusset plate design asking states to recalculate the loads when major work was planned for the bridge.
Mn/DOT immediately began checking gusset plates on all 25 steel truss state bridges whether or not work was planned.
For more information about the Blatnik Bridge, visit Mn/DOT's Web site, www.dot.state.mn.us .
-Minnesota and Wisconsin department of transportations press release
