The bridge connects the convention center to Canal Park, the Ship Canal and the Aerial Lift Bridge.
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| Street View, Jul 2017 |
The SS William A Irvin Museum is in the background.
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| Larry Smith posted Busy day at Aerial Lift Bridge, Vista Star and William A Irvin in Duluth today. Jamey Penney-Ritter: That’s the Minnesota Slip Bridge. |
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| Jamie R. Rytlewski, Jun 2017 |
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| mprnews Just a week after it opened, the $800k "little blue bridge" broke down for three weeks. In 2017, they spent $2.5m to replace the cables with a rack and pinion system so that it does not rely on gravity to work. This allows it to push a leaf back down even if the wind is blowing against it. Because of wind, the bridge was closed 45 days between May and Oct in 2015. In 2016, more than 600,000 pedestrians crossed the drawbridge during Duluth's busy tourist season. [Note the cables in this photo vs. the rods in the other photos.] |
In addition to replacing the cables with a rack and pinion, the tower connections were strengthened to handle the rack pushing against a wind load. And the span center locks were modified. "The latches had been reported to disengage under pedestrian live load traffic and bounce at the center the span several inches." [H&H]
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| JohnWeeks The slip is also used by harbor tour boats. |
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| 1 of 8 photos posted by Conner Blaukat Minnesota Slip Drawbridge in Duluth, Minnesota |
It looks like they do the same dumb thing that some of the Chicago bridges do: waste time by raising the bridge a lot higher than is needed. In fact, it continues rising all the way to 90 degrees even though the bridge has passed. This screenshot shows that the bridge has a very low clearance so that it needs to be raised for almost any boat. In fact, I'm trying to figure out if it needs to be raised for even a kayak or a canoe.
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| 5:26 video @ 2:13 |
2:42 video It couldn't be operated if the wind is over 20mph because it acts like a kite. This impacted the fishing boats that harbor in the slip. And the convention goers staying in the over 1000 hotel rooms in Canal Park.
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