I-90 Mississippi River Bridge

I-90 Mississippi River Bridge

Aerial View of the area looking south, with Lock and Dam No. 7 in the foreground
Coordinates 43°51′28″N 91°17′57″W / 43.85778°N 91.29917°W / 43.85778; -91.29917Coordinates: 43°51′28″N 91°17′57″W / 43.85778°N 91.29917°W / 43.85778; -91.29917
Carries 4 lanes of I90
Crosses Mississippi River
Locale Dresbach, Minnesota to La Crosse, Wisconsin
Maintained by Wisconsin and Minnesota Departments of Transportation
ID number B-32-0045 (Wisconsin), 9320 (Minnesota)
Characteristics
Design Plate girder bridge
Total length 2,490 feet (759 m)
Width 67.3 feet (21 m)
Longest span 450 feet (137 m)
Clearance below 62 feet (19 m)
History
Opened October 1967
I-90 Bridge looking east
I-90 bridge under construction, 2016

The I-90 Mississippi River Bridge is a plate girder bridge that connects La Crosse, Wisconsin to rural Winona County, Minnesota. It is an automobile bridge that traverses the Mississippi River, and is part of the Interstate 90 route. The railing consists of solid concrete; the steel structure is painted a dark green. There is another automobile crossing a few miles south of this bridge; the Mississippi River Bridge, a combination of two bridges, along with the La Crosse West Channel Bridge connect La Crescent, Minnesota and La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Potential rehabilitation or replacement

Although the current bridge has no weight restrictions and operates at an acceptable level of service, there are number of problems with the bridge and surrounding roadways:

In 2006, Mn/DOT commissioned a study on ways to rectify some or all of these issues. Some of the options that were presented included:

Selecting a preferred alternative will take further studies, but the least costly option that would address the non-redundant design of the existing bridge is $58 million, while the least costly total replacement option is $59 million. There are also a number of concepts for rebuilding the interchange on the Minnesota side, depending on whether the bridge is rebuilt or replaced. Complicating construction will be the proximity to steep bluffs and an active railway on the Minnesota side, proximity to the La Crosse Regional Airport, which could limit the height of any towers, and barge traffic, which restricts where piers may be placed. Construction is in progress with a planned completion date in late 2016.[1]

New bridge and interchange

The new crossing will consist of two separate bridges parallel and upstream from the existing bridge. They are concrete box girder structures over the main river channel and precast concrete girders over the back channel. The new bridges have will have the following specification:

The final interchange will have no signals between I-90 and Hwy 61, as well as access to the traveler information center and boat launches. The westbound I-90 to southbound Hwy 61 will have a fly-under ramp allowing continuous movement with no competing traffic.[2]

Est. Cost: $187.5 Million

I-90 bridge, September 2016

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.