Plymouth Avenue bridge to be shut down until spring

Minneapolis city officials say the Plymouth Avenue bridge which spans the Mississippi River near downtown will likely stay closed for repairs until spring.

The bridge was built in 1982 and handles 10,000 automobiles a day. Last week, repair crews found corroded cables in the bridge's structure.

The cables will likely have to be removed and replaced, said Steve Kotke, director of the city's public works department. He said the concern is not that the bridge will collapse, but that parts of it could shift if the cables aren't fixed.

"Another concern with that would be that the amount of repair work would be considerably more if we ended up if we wound up having that type of movement on the bridge," he said.

Kotke said there's been an increase in traffic on the nearby Broadway Avenue bridge since the closing. The city is working to relieve congestion on and around the bridge, he said.

"We've actually made some traffic signal modifications, some timing modifications to the signal at Broadway and Marshall to better handle some of the turning movements there," he said. "We're going to continue monitoring those."

Kotke said travelers can also use the Hennepin Avenue bridge which is just to the south of the Plymouth Avenue bridge.

It's too early to estimate how much the repairs will cost, he said.