Minnesota – Wisconsin Bridge Opposition Grows among State Legislators

Tom Warne Report, 9 December 2011

Star-Tribune, Minneapolis – November 28, 2011

Some state legislators are increasingly opposed to spending $360 million for Minnesota’s portion of a new St. Croix River bridge, and instead want the funding released to be spent on transportation projects that will benefit more residents. The lawmakers say the state cannot afford to spend that amount in addition to the $100 million or more needed to enhance highways surrounding the proposed new Vikings stadium in Arden Hills, as hundreds of other roads and bridges in the state continue to deteriorate.

The Minnesota’s Department of Transportation’s preferred proposal is endorsed by Gov. Mark Dayton and the state’s two U.S. Senate Democrats for a four-lane, $690 million bridge at Oak Park Heights. A smaller bridge was proposed to be built in Stillwater by a group formed this summer, Stillwater Sensible Bridge Partnership, with an estimated cost of $394 million.

“It’s expensive, it costs more than the I-35 bridge with one-sixth the traffic, and would fund sprawl in Wisconsin,” said Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, one of the 30 Minnesota and Wisconsin legislators who recently wrote a letter to Dayton and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. “Everything will be delayed that much more because we’re building an oversized bridge.”

Advocates of the bigger bridge, which has been planned for years, say a federal “working group” proposed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to further explore the bridge issue, would repeat years of studies completed by federal and state agencies, community groups and local governments.

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