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Several additional months of inconvenience are ahead for the thousands of drivers who use County Road 81 each day to travel between north Minneapolis and Robbinsdale.
Last week, the Hennepin County Department of Transportation closed the southbound bridge over Wirth Parkway and Lowry Avenue and shifted traffic onto the northbound bridge with one travel lane in each direction.
That was not supposed to happen until spring, when the county plans to start rebuilding the two deteriorating spans that pass over Lowry Avenue and Wirth Parkway. But repeated weight limit violations raised safety concerns and prompted the swift action.
Five years ago, the county posted weight restrictions to keep heavy vehicles off the southbound span, which has corroded steel bars showing through on the underside where concrete has fallen away. Dump trucks over 24 tons and semitrailer trucks over 32 tons were banned.
Bridge in Minneapolis closed after vehicles ignore weight restrictions
The bridge closed to traffic months before it was scheduled to close.
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The southbound bridge on Highway 81 between Minneapolis and Robbinsdale closed months ahead of schedule because motorists ignored weight restrictions on the deteriorating bridge.
Last week, the Hennepin County Department of Transportation shifted traffic from southbound West Broadway Avenue between 29th and Abbott avenues to the northbound bridge, with traffic traveling in a single lane in each direction.
However, traffic on the bridge wasn t supposed to be realigned until the spring when Hennepin County begins the West Broadway Avenue Bridges reconstruction project, which will replace the three existing bridges – one for northbound traffic over Wirth Parkway and Lowry Avenue, one for southbound traffic and one connecting from Lowry Avenue (County Road 153) to West Broadway Avenue.