West Broadway Bridge Replacement Plan Begins to Take Shape
Hennepin County has deemed three bridges that connect Minneapolis to Robbinsdale on County Road 81 and West Broadway Avenue as “structurally deficient.”
The county now plans to replace the bridges, which date back to the 1960s.
Preliminary designs of the bridge reconstruction project are 30 percent complete.
Project managers say the top of the bridges would look similar in size and shape, but below, the intersection of Lowry Ave and Theodore Wirth Parkway would change. The plan is to shrink the size of the intersection. Engineers say it will calm traffic conditions and make it safer for pedestrians.
“And we’re going to reduce the pavement size to about half of what it is now,” said John Ekola, Hennepin County project engineer. “What that does is it allows the crossing distances for everyone to decrease, and that will increase awareness for everyone — for motorists, pedestrians, bicyclists, and make it a much safer feel.”
Work will begin in the fall of 2020 and take two years to complete. The total cost of the project will be about $17.5 million.
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