The collapse of the Interstate 35W bridge in 2007 did more than just shock Minnesota. It also shocked Minnesota into action.
Minnesota not only replaced the collapsed bridge, but also made a concerted effort to repair and replace hundreds of other bridges around the state.
Part of how this effort was funded was and remains controversial, but the results was a significant reduction in the number of deficient Minnesota bridges even as Minnesota’s bridges continue to age.
In 2007, just under 9 percent of Minnesota’s bridges were structurally deficient. Around 6 percent of Minnesota’s urban freeway bridge traffic was passing over structurally deficient bridges.
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Nearly a decade later, both those numbers have fallen sharply. The number of statewide deficient bridges is one-third lower, while bridge work in the metro has cut the share of traffic over deficient bridges by more than half.
“Our state-owned bridges, the number of bridges that are structurally deficient or poor has dropped to a much lower level,” said Kevin Western, the state bridge engineer at the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
The reaction to the I-35W collapse galvanized this effort.
Before the collapse, there was a “general sense” that Minnesota’s bridges were deteriorating, but “I don’t think (the public) had a real solid handle on the scope and scale of the problem,” said state Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis and a specialist in transportation issues. “The bridge collapse put a huge focus on that question.”
THE COST OF BRIDGES
Replacing the I-35W bridge was a massive and expensive undertaking: a $234 million contract, plus bonuses. Other projects can be even more: the new St. Croix Crossing bridge project is estimated to cost nearly $650 million.
But not all bridge projects are budget-busters. The average bridge in Minnesota costs about $2 million to replace, Western said. Rehabbing an existing bridge is cheaper, about $1 million on average.
If built well and maintained, a new bridge can last 50 years or more. Rehab work, such as a new deck, can add as much as 40 years to a bridge’s life, while less dramatic projects such as replacing the top layer of pavement can add 25 years.
FINDING NEW MONEY
Minnesota began making progress on improving the state’s bridges even before the 2007 disaster. Western said the 1990s had seen funding for maintenance and upkeep stagnate, but lawmakers began giving one-time funding for bridges in the 2000s. The number of deficient bridges fell both before and after the collapse.
A major surge in money after the collapse accelerated the process. Some was incidental, such as the $352 million in federal road and bridge money Minnesota got as part of the 2009 “stimulus package.”
Other money related directly to the bridge collapse: the $310 million in emergency federal money approved in the disaster’s wake.
“Within the first hour after the collapse, Congressman Oberstar called me from the House floor, where he was preparing legislation to help,” said then-Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak of the late Rep. Jim Oberstar, an Iron Range Democrat. Rybak called the response from Oberstar, the rest of the bipartisan Minnesota congressional delegation and President George W. Bush’s administration “remarkable.”
KEY MOMENT: 2008 GAS TAX HIKE
The largest development came out of the Minnesota Legislature. A controversial 2008 bill in the Legislature borrowed $1.8 billion and raised the state’s gas tax by five cents per gallon to fund roads and bridges — hundreds of millions of dollars per year in new ongoing revenue.
Some of this money went to a range of road projects, but an estimated $2.5 billion went to fix Minnesota’s most endangered bridges over a decade.
“That investment is what has made such a great change here in this state,” said Western, who has worked on bridges at MnDOT for three decades.
The last of the bridge money appropriated under that measure is still being spent. Final projects will go out for bid this spring and finish in two to three years.
Despite its acknowledged impact, the funding was controversial. The Legislature overrode a veto from then-Gov. Tim Pawlenty to pass it, and there’s bitterness on both sides to this day.
Supporters of the 2008 gas tax hike, which included legislative Democrats, a handful of aisle-crossing Republican legislators and the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, argued that the I-35W bridge collapse required this investment — even at the cost of a tax increase on Minnesotans.
But Pawlenty and others argued that the structural flaws that led to the I-35W bridge collapse were a distinct issue from broader, less urgent infrastructure needs.
“There’s no doubt we needed to address the issues with increased funding,” Pawlenty said this year. “But that stands independent of the reason that this bridge fell. People conflate these two things in ways that are not supported by the facts or the (National Transportation Safety Board’s) conclusions. The bridge fell because of a design flaw.”
THE NEED GOING FORWARD
Even in the best of times, Minnesota needs to be regularly replacing bridges as they near the end of their natural life. But Minnesota’s about to face a much steeper problem: lots of bridges needing major work all at once.
The reason? More than 2,300 Minnesota bridges were built between 1966 and 1995 as the interstate highway system was created and expanded. That’s 2.5 times as many as in the 30 years before that. And 1966 is 51 years ago — a typical life span for a bridge.
“Once we hit about 1965, every year after that for the next 30 years, we built about 75 bridges,” Western said. “They’re just going to keep coming at us. … We have a pretty significant investment we have to make.”
Replacing 75 bridges a year costs around $150 million. A decade ago, in contrast, the state needed to replace around 45 bridges per year.
Another issue: bridges owned by local governments aren’t in as good of shape as the state-owned bridges, which received the bulk of the new money over the past 10 years.
“We still have some work to do on our local system,” Western said.
NEW FUNDING THIS YEAR
The hard-fought 2008 gas tax increase had a long shadow. Though the Chamber of Commerce and some Republican lawmakers backed the 2008 gas tax, an attempt by Gov. Mark Dayton to raise the gas tax in recent years met with near-universal opposition on the right side of the aisle. One oft-cited reason: the gas tax had been raised less than a decade before.
Instead, politicians this year settled on a smaller plan to dedicate around $300 million from the state’s existing revenues to transportation. That includes around $25 million each of the next two years for bridges, and up to $100 million per year in future years if nothing changes.
Critics said this money was too small and would be too easy for future Legislatures to take away because it’s not from a constitutionally dedicated source, such as the gas tax, while supporters said it was a significant new investment that didn’t take more money from taxpayers.
Staff at the Department of Transportation say they’ll take as much money as lawmakers give them. Though the Legislature’s funding is less than they hoped for, Western said it’ll help speed up the repair of bridges that wouldn’t have seen work for another five years or more.
“Minnesotans should be proud of the leaders and what’s been done to date,” Western said. “But we have more we need to do. We shouldn’t lose track of that.”
Bill Salisbury contributed to this report.