MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) – Nearly eight months after a lifted box truck struck the Highway 14 Bridge at Highway 22 in Mankato, repair work has finally begun.
Those repairs are expected to last until October, and MnDOT said the extent of the damage is the reason for such a large reconstruction project.
“We call it the facia beam, the first beam you see when you drive under a bridge, it was hit and some of those strands were severed,” explained Brett Paasch with MnDOT. “The project involves very carefully cutting out the pavement, removing the railing, pulling out the old beam, removing the pavement, taking out the old beam and putting in a new beam that will be delivered to the site, refacing the pavement, putting in the rebar, pouring the concrete and pouring the barrier.”
The construction will reduce eastbound traffic on Highway 14 to one lane, while northbound Highway 22 will be closed and detoured via Highway 14 to County Road 12 beginning Friday morning.
The repair will take place at the same time as Highway 22 is closed for the Augusta Drive roundabout project.
MnDOT said the damage to the bridge was apparently not included in its annual plan, but that it had integrated the repair into an existing project to minimize delays, even though the total area of closures was larger.
“We don’t want projects to overlap, but here we actually wanted to overlap them to minimize the one-time disruption to travelers. If we had waited longer, there would have been two separate disruptions,” said Paasch.
Highway 14 heading east will be completely closed at the bridge overnight from Thursday to Sunday from 10 p.m. to 3 a.m. Eastbound traffic will be diverted via the on- and off-ramps at the bridge.
Click here to download the KEYC News Now app or our KEYC First Alert weather app.
All rights reserved.
