Minnesota Highways, March 1956

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VOL.  5,  No.  5
1246  University Ave., St.  Paul 4,  Minn.
March,   1956
Big Help To State Seen
In More Federal Road Aid
The federal aid highway program under consideration
by the House of Representatives in Washington, at this writing (in early March) would nearly triple the allotment of
federal aid road funds available to Minnesota. It would increase the present level of about $21 million of federal road ' state bridge across the Mississippi river at Red Wing. The
funds for the state to approximately $60 million a year, for  bridge is expected to be completed by 1959.
New Red Wing Bridge
Contract Let for Plans for
New  Interstate Multiple Span
Preliminary action is under way for start of construction
next vear on a new $3-million  Minnesota-Wisconsin inter
state and federal aid funds for
improvements on other primary,
urban, and secondary or farm-to-
market roads, many of which otherwise cannot be financed for many
years.
It also was pointed out that if
the federal program can be enacted into law at this session of Congress, there will no longer exist
any justification for apprehension
on the part of communities primarily served by state trunk routes
as to whether there will be sufficient funds for trunk route improvements if State Constitutional
amendment No. 2 is adopted next
fall.
This amendment in turn would
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a total of $775 million over the next 13 or 14 years.
The great benefit which would
accrue to the development of better highways in Minnesota by
adoption of the measure in Congress was emphasized at a meeting of some 140 leaders of various
road user and engineer groups
February 17 at the State Office
building in St. Paul.
Seek   Enactment
Sponsored by the League of
Minnesota Municipalities and the
newly organized Minnesota Good
Boads, Inc., the assembly was
called to launch a campaign to inspire individuals and organizations
to express to Minnesota's Congressmen and Senators their desire for
the enactment by this Congress of
the proposed expanded Federal
Aid Highway program.
Speakers pointed out that some
$41 million a year of this federal
money would be made available
to Minnesota on a 90-10 per cent
matching basis. Boiled down, this
would mean that Minnesota could
build $45 million worth of improvements on its 936 miles of
heavily traveled urban and rural
interstate network routes by spending only $4.5 million in state
funds.
It was pointed out that these
heavily traveled routes, carrying a
tremendous volume of traffic and
constituting the key routes of both
the interstate system and the defense network of the nation, virtually have first claim upon such
funds as are now available. Expediting their construction with
90-10 per cent federal funds would
relieve   a   great  amount  of  other
Definite word of the project was given by Governor Freeman who announced February 27 that a contract for preparation of plans for the structure had been awarded to Alfred
Benesch and Associates of Chicago, at a cost of $112,110.
Governor Freeman said the new
crossing will consist of four bridges
and about a mile and one-half of
grading across Mud lake, which
lies between the main and Wisconsin   channels   of   the   Mississippi.
Costs of the proposed construction
will be shared jointly by the states
of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and
federal road construction funds
also will be utilized by the two
states. The two principal spans,
over the main and Wisconsin channels, will be of steel type construction.
The new structure will replace
the present bridge, which was built
in   1895  and  has  been for many
years   admittedly   inadequate   for
the traffic which uses it
only    bridge    between
It is the
Hastings,
Minn., and Wabasha, Minn., a distance of 58 miles.    It links Minn.
T.H. 61 with Wisconsin T.H. 63.
There is in the present bridge a
steep grade and a very sharp turn
in the approach from the Wisconsin side. Furthermore, the narrow
19-foot roadway has made the
bridge a traffic hazard. Because of
its light construction, the present
bridge  has   been   posted   for   less
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SITES OF THE PRESENT AND PROPOSED MISSISSIPPI  RIVER  BRIDGES
ARE SHOWN IN THE ABOVE AERIAL PHOTO
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AT RED WING