Prompts winter weather advisories as cold air moves in Friday night

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

After nearly five years of work, on Monday the city of Winona will celebrate the completion of construction and repairs on its bridges over the Mississippi River.

Traffic is set to start flowing again over the historic Highway 43 bridge that has been closed since 2016 for renovations.

It'll join a new span that's been open since 2016. One span will carry two lanes of traffic into Winona; the other will carry traffic leaving town.

"It's a big day, to finally get this job done. It's a $150 million project. But I think in the end it will give the community a lot of assurance," said Winona Mayor Mark Peterson. "We have the redundancy of having two bridges. We know things can happen to bridges, either below or on it, and if something ever happens we'd still have a second bridge to carry traffic over the river."

Something did happen to the old span in 2008: It was 

 after inspectors found safety issues with gusset plates. It reopened after repairs, but that spurred what eventually became the 

 starting in 2014 — first building a new span, then completely rehabilitating the old one.

Peterson said it was important to maintain the old bridge, which dates back to 1942 — and not just for the redundancy.

"It's an important bridge; it's historic. And it's really an iconic feature for our community," he said. "When Minnesota was 

featured on a sesquicentennial (postage) stamp

, that was the bridge in the foreground, representing the state."

The city and the Minnesota Department of Transportation 

 at noon Monday at the foot of the bridge.

Business and Economic News

Andrew Krueger

Author

After nearly five years of work, on Monday the city of Winona will celebrate the completion of construction and repairs on its bridges over the Mississippi River.


Winona set to celebrate completion of yearslong bridge project

Go Deeper.

Like this?