Rockford Road Bridge in Plymouth Nears Completion
Plymouth city officials cut the ribbon on the new Rockford Road bridge over Interstate Highway 494. The bridge is now partially open for drivers, but construction won’t be finished on the entire project until November.
The new Rockford Road Bridge is wider and has dedicated left turn lanes onto Interstate-494. The original interchange dated back to 1965. As the city of Plymouth grew, cars backed up on the interchange, which averaged 33 crashes per year over the past five years. Additionally, the project includes wider ramps with improved turn lanes onto Rockford Road and improvements for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Earlier in the summer, Raj Kumar of Dufner’s Deli expressed concern that the construction was hurting his business.
“I closed for 18 days. I was not thinking I was going to come back or not,” said Kumar. “But thanks to everybody, I am here.”
Now, he’s thankful the work is almost over and his business survived.
“Thank you to the customers who came here. They helped me to stay here and I really appreciate that,” said Kumar.
Plymouth partnered with Hennepin County and MnDOT to complete the project. The state legislature also designated $9.72 million in state bonding money to help fund the project.
There’s still more work to be done. The south half of the bridge will remain closed for another couple of weeks. The ramp from Northbound 494 to Rockford Road will be closed through early November.
You can keep up with the progress of the Rockford Road Bridge project here.
