St. Croix Crossing Construction Update

The St. Croix Crossing project connecting Oak Park Heights, Minnesota, and St. Joseph, Wisconsin, and replace the aging Stillwater Lift Bridge is in its fourth year of construction. The new river crossing will open to traffic Fall 2017.

River bridge construction update
All river piers and towers are built to full height and the crossbeams are complete. The 2016 construction highlights include:
Once the ice is gone on the river, construction crews will resume installing pre-cast river bridge segments that make up the driving surface at Piers 8 and 9, closest to Minnesota land, and Pier 12, closest to Wisconsin land.
Segment placement will continue to ramp up into summer, when crews anticipate placing segments at all five river pier locations and at Pier 13 on the Wisconsin bluff.
Crews also will resume installing stay cables, which are located above the bridge deck and help support the weight on the bridge.
Half of the stay cables are installed at Pier 8 and nearly 40 percent of the stay cables are installed at Pier 9.

Wisconsin approach construction update
The contractor will complete final grading work in the spring. The majority of the construction season will focus on paving the new Highway 64. The new road will open to traffic simultaneously with the new river crossing.

River navigation channel
The bridge construction zone on the St. Croix River between Stillwater and Bayport will be incredibly congested in 2016 with barges, boats and equipment. The river navigation channel will continuously change to allow crews to construct the bridge deck at all five pier locations.

Boaters are asked to stay between the red and green buoys that designate the channel and respect the one-mile slow/no wake worker safety zone.

Boaters on both the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers: Be aware that the project is transporting pre-cast river bridge segments via barge from its Grey Cloud Island casting yard near Cottage Grove to the bridge construction site north of Bayport. Barge activity will be much more frequent compared to 2015, with shipments potentially occurring daily. Please safely share the waterway with project barges.

Public boat tours
Public boat tours of the bridge construction site via the St. Croix Boat & Packet paddle boats are back for a third season. Tours are scheduled for the following dates, rain or shine:
 
Wednesday, May 11
Saturday, May 21
Wednesday, June 15
Saturday, June 25
Saturday, July 16
Wednesday, July 27
Saturday, August 13
Wednesday, August 24
Saturday, September 10
Wednesday, September 14
Saturday, October 8

Go to www.stillwaterriverboats.com for more details and to reserve seats. Tickets are $10 for adults and $6 for children ages 4 to 12.

Stay connected
Visit the project website: www.mndot.gov/stcroixcrossing (Sign up for weekly email updates)
Call the hotline at 1-855-GO-CROIX (1-855-462-7649)
Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/saintcroixcrossingmndot
Follow us on Twitter @stcroixcrossing
Stop by the project office at 1862 Greeley St. S. in Stillwater