Minneapolis I-35W bridge spans Mississippi River

Wikinews
July 7, 2008

The United States bridge that collapsed almost a year ago, spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is close to being reconstructed. The final sections of the northbound lanes of the new Interstate 35W St. Anthony Falls Bridge in Minneapolis, Minnesota were put in place on July 5. The final segment was raised with a barge-mounted crane from the Mississippi River below. A temporary bridge now connects the two segments.

The remaining seven-foot gap will be closed in several days with concrete which is poured in place. The segments for the southbound lanes will now be raised and connected. The segments were cast in a work area which was on the 35W roadbed and were then moved to Bohemian Flats, near the University of Minnesota West Bank campus. A crane places each segment on a barge for delivery upstream to the bridge site.

The bridge may be completed as early as September, well ahead of the scheduled opening date of December 24th.

Bridge spans the river. Final sections of northbound lanes of St. Anthony Falls (35W) Bridge were put in place July 5, 2008. The seven foot gap will be closed by poured concrete. View is approximately to the north. The crane, named "Big Ben", is a Manitowoc 4600 Series 3 barge mounted ring crane. The tugboat on duty was the Katie Ann, Chicago, Illinois; the Mary Ann left several minutes earlier. The white area is a plastered painted coating which will cover the completed bridge. Photo by "SEWilco" View photo, 2,992KB Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

Remaining gap in bridge. Final sections of northbound lanes of St. Anthony Falls (35W) Bridge were put in place July 5, 2008. The seven foot gap will be closed by poured concrete. The crane, named "Big Ben", is a Manitowoc 4600 Series 3 barge mounted ring crane. Photo by "SEWilco" View photo, 5,260KB Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

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