MnDOT: St. Croix Crossing will look more like a bridge by year's end
Construction on the St. Croix River bridge project is moving faster with the warming weather.
Crews from Minnesota and Wisconsin aim to install most of the deck segments this year, hoping to make up time after the schedule was pushed back a year.
Barges are motoring out bridge sections, concrete trucks and moving cranes around piers that stand about 200 feet above the river.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation says soon it'll bring in a ringer crane — one of four in the country — to lift the 180-ton bridge segments into place.
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MnDOT bridge construction engineer Paul Kivisto said warmer weather helped.
"The river opened up early so we were able to erect some segments earlier than otherwise would've been anticipated," Kivisto said.
MnDOT expects to complete the span between Oak Park Heights in Minnesota and Houlton, Wis., by late 2017, about a year behind schedule.
The estimated cost was around $640 million. With the delay, that's expected to rise.
MnDOT says it is renegotiating costs with the contractor.
