US-63 1895,1958,2020 Bridges over Mississippi River at Red Wing, MN

1895 High Bridge: (Bridge Hunter)
1958 Truss Bridge: (Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; John A. Weeks III; Satellite) Eshenhower Bridge
2020 Box-Girder Bridge: (renderings from MnDOT)

Wisconsin and/or Minnesota has found money to improve their bridges. In Winona they are supplementing the existing truss bridge. But here they are replacing a two-lane truss bridge with a two-lane bridge. I thought from the renderings that the box girders were made of concrete, but the second photo below looks more like steel.

Ronnie Hendershot posted three photos with the comment: "Red Wing Minnesota bridge project."

1

2
Ben Stalvey Sure that MLC 300 could handle it alone.[You can tell by the counterweights being rather far from the end of the tray rail that it is using just a fraction of its capacity.]
Ben Stalvey Seems alot the MLC 300 have replaced jobs a 4100 ringer would be on.

3

There are more crane photos at the end of these notes.



On the original bridge, note the horses lined up at the toll booth waiting for their riders to pay the toll.

eBook, p445

John A. Weeks III

John A. Weeks III

Minnesota Highways, 1960, p1

[The 1958 bridge is still under construction, and the 1895 truss is just upstream where "the slab" is now being built.]

Minnesota Highways, 1960, p4

John Weeks has a closeup of where the center span hangs as an independent structure from the end of a cantilevered truss using pins and hangers.

John A. Weeks III

Evidently MnDOT learned from their Winona public meetings that people do not like to see a slab across the river. So they added "horns" to the design.

2015 Nathan Holth comment from Bridge Hunters

Proof that MnDOT does listen to the public --- they made the horns smaller. Furthermore, they are evidently wrapping the piers in granite to move the eye away from yet another slab bridge.

renderings, p1

renderings, p3

The concepts considered were a tied arch, steel box girder, and segmental concrete box girder. The steel bridge still has to be periodically painted, but it is supposed to be easier to inspect than a truss design.

Visualizations

I save the current satellite image because it will change. I went to the ADM web site to determine what kind of plant they have here. But I could not find any information about any of their locations. Fortunately, John Weeks indicated it is a soybean and flax oil extraction plant.

Satellite

(new window)

Ronnie Hendershot posted
One more from Red Wing Minnesota

Ronnie Hendershot posted some photos with the comment: "Putting a tub girder on the barge today at the Red Wing Minnesota bridge project."

1

2

3

Ronnie Hendershot posted
A friend of mine took this from his boat yesterday!
Ben Stalvey With VPC Max also wow
Ronnie Hendershot Ben Stalvey it's a Zenith job, and the Liebherr's and Terex's are theirs.
Ben Stalvey I know they have use a ton of Terex and Americans

Ronnie Hendershot posted six photos with the comment: "A few pics from Red Wing Minnesota. Loaded on Wisconsin side and floated across to Mn side and set!"

1

2, cropped

3, cropped

4

5

6

Brian Klawitter posted three photos with the comment: "The Red Wing Bridge Project."

1

2

3

Bill Pohlmann posted four photos of some nighttime action.
MLC300 VPC-MAX on a barge, building a new Mississippi River bridge in Red Wing, MN. Also an 11000-1 and a 2250.

John Jepsen posted two photos with the comment: "New bridge over the Mississippi in Red Wing Minnesota today. [June 25, 2019]"

Scott Tipton What is the weight of the tub girder?

John Jepsen I have no idea. I was looking at stand jacking the old span down for demolition and was lucky to see them placing the last girder.

1

2