St. Paul's Kellogg-3rd Street Bridge to reopen in November
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Quick Read
After just more than two years, the bridge connecting the east side of St. Paul to downtown will reopen by Nov. 15.
The new bridge will have four lanes of vehicle traffic, two barrier-separated trails on both sides of the roadway to provide space for pedestrians and cyclists. Intersections near Union Depot and Mounds Boulevard have been reconstructed to improve safety and accessibility. The redesign will also help support rapid transit bus traffic.
On Saturday, the community had a chance to walk across the bridge and learn more about the construction project during a ribbon cutting ceremony.
“The Kellogg-Third Street Bridge is a vital connection between downtown St. Paul and the east side," said St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her. “This milestone reflects years of dedication from our Public Works staff, the construction crews who carried out this complex work, our state and federal partners, and the community members whose patience and advocacy never wavered.”
Turn Up Your Support
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.
While the public works department plans to open the bridge to traffic within the next month, construction on the bridge will continue, including installing railings and restoring landscaping around the bridge.
Derek and Tracy Sciacca live on the east side of St. Paul and decided to walk the bridge during the ribbon-cutting ceremony. They both said they are looking forward to having their most convenient connection to downtown return.
“You don't really realize how much of a throughway it is until it's actually gone,” Derek Sciacca said. “It's just increased the distance and the time to get downtown, so I'm just super excited to have it open again.”
Former St. Paul public works director Sean Kershaw helped find the funding needed to finish the project.
“Underneath the bridge, you have two local roads. You have an interstate with 100,000 cars per day, park flood plains, a sacred site for the Dakota community in Waḳaƞ Ṭípi, one of the most busy railroads, high voltage lines and five sewer tunnels,” Kersaw said. ”All of that had to be accommodated for this bridge to happen. On time, ahead of schedule and under budget.”
The new bridge features artist-designed details from Seitu Jones and Dyani White Hawk. Jones railing designs capture St. Paul culture, while White Hawk highlights the connection to Wakan Tipi below the bridge deck with designs on the piers.
The former half-mile concrete bridge closed to traffic on July 29, 2024. It was built by the Minnesota Department of Transportation in 1980 and turned over to the city in 1983. It runs roughly parallel to the Mississippi River, over the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, connecting downtown St. Paul to Mounds Boulevard.
The bridge replacement stems from a 2014 structural analysis that found traffic couldn’t be supported on the outer portions of the bridge deck. That forced the city to restrict the old bridge to three traffic lanes, along with one six-foot wide sidewalk.
St. Paul began bridge design shortly after.
The total funding secured for the project was $92.7 million, with $80.5 million coming from state legislative bonds, $7 million from federal grants and $5.2 million from local funds.
