Rehabilitation work to begin on old Winona bridge

$39 million project will rehabilitate and reinforce historic structure

WINONA, Minn. (WKBT) — Construction on the new bridge in Winona may be done, but work in the area isn’t over yet.

Crews will soon begin work on the next phase of the project to rehabilitate the old bridge stretching over the Mississippi River.

The work comes with a $39 million price tag and will re-enforce the historic structure to better handle modern traffic.

While it took two years to build a new bridge, project engineer Beth Burton says it will take crews even longer to make the improvements to the old one.

“The designers called the work on the through truss rehab ‘dental work.’ So we really have to get into the crevasses and remove all of this rust and do all of these minor repairs to make the whole structure good again,” said Burton.

The rehabilitation work on the old Winona Bridge is scheduled to be completed in November 2019.