Winona Bridge project moves forward

The Minnesota Department of Transportation has chosen Burnsville-based Ames Construction as the general contractor for the Winona Bridge project.

The roughly $150 million project will rehabilitate the existing Winona bridge across the Mississippi River, and also add a second bridge.

Once completed, the existing bridge will carry all traffic outbound from Winona, and the new bridge will carrying all traffic inbound to Winona, according to MnDOT Project Manager Terry Ward.

Ward says it's the first time the agency has hired a general contractor this early in the process.

"We hire the contracting team earlier than we normally do in our traditional contracting, and they work with us during design to understand a little bit better risks and costs and aspects of means and methods of the contractor during the design phase," he said.

Construction on the new bridge is expected to begin in July and overall completion is expected by the fall of 2019.

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