Never a Bridge
Too Far Along the Mississippi
Too Far Along the Mississippi
From La Crosse, Wis., to down south in New Orleans, new bridges replacing antiquated structures, along with improvements to existing spans, are also in various stages along the river. The latest to open is a $31-million span connecting La Crosse, Wis., to southeastern Minnesota. Opening in November 2004, the structure is a 2,573-ft. (784-m.), two-lane crossing.
Certainly the level of project activity in that region seems to indicate a rise in traffic. Minnesota, with 39 projects, just trailed Tennessee in 2004 project numbers in the New Plant Database, with 37 of them occurring in
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| BNSF is expanding its intermodal facility in Memphis with a $40-million project. |
The largest bridge project currently under construction is in Greenville, Miss., where a $206-million span is moving toward completion in 2006. The 2,560-ft. (780-m.) bridge will include the third longest cable-stayed span in North America. It will carry two lanes of traffic in each direction.
The Huey P. Long Bridge, one of three Mississippi River crossings at New Orleans, will see a $300-million widening project begin this year. Widening of the combined railroad-highway bridge will take about seven years to complete. A list developed by Greater New Orleans, Inc., shows 102 companies in the area's maritime cluster alone.
But the biggest new bridge planned for the river awaits federal funding to commence construction. The $1.6-billion project would span the river at St. Louis. As in Memphis and Minnesota, that's in keeping with the relatively high level of business activity indicated by 2004 project numbers in Missouri's St. Louis County and the Illinois counties of St. Clair and Madison.
When complete, the new bridge will assume several superlative descriptions, including the longest cable-stayed span in the Western Hemisphere and the fifth-longest cable-stayed span in the world. It will include eight lanes of traffic.
