Star Tribune
Govs. Walz, Evers seeking $1 billion in federal funds for Blatnik Bridge upgrade
DULUTH – Minnesota and Wisconsin’s Departments of Transportation asked for more than $1 billion in federal funding through the U.S. DOT’s Bridge Investment Program to rebuild the Blatnik Bridge, governors from both states announced Monday.
Transportation officials have recommended a complete rebuild of the more than 60-year-old connector between Duluth and Superior, Wis., a project that is expected to cost about $1.8 billion but does not yet have funding. Minnesota and Wisconsin, which jointly share ownership of the bridge, have each committed to contributing $400 million.
“The Blatnik Bridge is a critical connection point for transportation and commerce between Minnesota and Wisconsin — and it needs an upgrade,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said in a news release.
He said the rebuild will foster regional economic growth, bolster national supply chains and strengthen the reliability of the transportation network between the two states. More than 33,000 vehicles use the Blatnik Bridge daily. Per year, 265,000 trucks carrying $2.6 billion in domestic goods and $1.07 billion in international goods use the route that carries traffic from Interstate 535 and U.S. 53 over the St. Louis Bay.
“But as the bridge reaches the end of its service life, its condition continues to deteriorate — and it’s time for us to exhaust every opportunity to replace this crucial connector with a safer, more efficient and more reliable structure for the next generation,” Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers said in the release.
Walz and Evers announced in August that they had jointly submitted an application for funding through the U.S. DOT’s Multimodal Project Discretionary Grant Program which, like the Bridge Investment Program, is part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Between the two, they are asking for more than $1 billion, according to Margie Nelson of MnDOT. The August application is still under review, she said.
President Joe Biden stopped at the Blatnik Bridge during a visit to the Twin Ports in 2022 to promote his $1 trillion infrastructure law — the source of the two DOT grants for which the state is applying.
The Blatnik Bridge was completed in 1961 and intended to last 70 years. Plans for an upgrade began in 2020 — at the time including scenarios that ranged from no rebuild to a complete overhaul.
At a meeting in October, transportation officials highlighted their recommendations for a new bridge that follows the same alignment as the current one, has roundabout interchanges and includes a multiuse path along the side that will benefit alternate modes of transportation and make bridge repairs less disruptive to traffic.
A public comment period followed the meeting and officials will respond to questions about the infrastructure in a Findings of Fact document that is expected to be available in early 2024.
The Blatnik Bridge can only hold 60% of the weight of what a standard highway bridge can hold, according to Pat Huston, major projects engineer at MnDOT. This has led to load restrictions that force trucks to use less efficient routes. He added that the bridge remains safe, but is nearing the end of its life. When construction begins, traffic will be rerouted to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge.
Amid the cacophony and chaos of the pregame preparation before a recent Minnetonka High School football game, an exceptional group of six girls is gathered together among the school’s deep and talented cheerleading and dance teams.
The cheerleaders, a national championship-winning program of 40 girls, dot the track around the football field. As the clock ticks down to kickoff and their night of choreographed routines begins, the six girls, proudly wearing Minnetonka blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Skippers Nation” and shaking shiny pom-poms, swirl around the track, bristling with excited energy.
Their circumstances are no different from any of the other cheerleaders with one notable exception: The girls on this team have special needs.
They’re members of the Minnetonka Sparklers, a squad of cheerleaders made up solely of girls with special needs.
A football game at Minnetonka High School is an elaborate production. The Skippers’ recent homecoming victory over Shakopee brought an announced crowd of 8,145. And that is just paying attendees; it doesn’t include school staffers, coaches, dance team, marching band, concession workers, media members and others going about their business attached to the game.
The Sparklers program, now in its 12th season, was the brainchild of Marcy Adams, a former Minnetonka cheerleader who initiated the program in her senior year of high school. Adams has been coach of the team since its inception, staying on through her tenure as a cheerleader at the University of Minnesota.
She started the program after experiencing the Unified Sports program at Minnetonka. The unified sports movement at high schools brings together student-athletes with cognitive or physical disabilities and athletes with no disabilities to foster relationships, understanding and compassion through athletics. Many Minnesota schools offer unified sports.
“I grew up in a household that valued students with special needs and valued inclusion,” Adams said. “I saw a need to give to those students. At Minnetonka, we have a strong Unified program, and this was a great opportunity to build relationships and offer mentorship opportunities.”
Elite runners are in a league of their own.
To get a sense of how far ahead elite runners are compared to the rest of us, the Minnesota Star Tribune took a look at how their times compare to the average marathon participant.
The 2022 Twin Cities Marathon men’s winner was Japanese competitor Yuya Yoshida, who ran the marathon in a time of 2 hours, 11 minutes and 28 seconds, for an average speed of 11.96 mph. He averaged 5 minutes and 2 seconds per mile.
That’s more than twice the speed of the average competitor across both the men’s and women’s categories, of 5.89 mph, according to race results site Mtec. The average participant finished in 4 hours, 26 minutes and 56 seconds. That comes out to an average time of 10 minutes and 11 seconds per mile.
And taking it to the most extreme, the fastest-ever marathon runner, Kelvin Kiptum of Kenya, finished the 2023 Chicago Marathon in 2 hours and 35 seconds, for an average pace of about 13 mph. Kiptum averaged 4 minutes and 36 seconds per mile.
Here is a graphic showing these differences in average marathon speed.
The school said in its lawsuit that both Hugo and May Township consider the land rural residential zoning, and that the codes identify a school as a conditional use. Hugo officials have generally supported the LCA plan, granting a building permit in 2022 that allowed LCA to invest $2.1 million into the former Withrow school for renovations.
The school said in its lawsuit that the existing septic system is failing and needs to be replaced, regardless of expansion plans.
The school said it notified neighbors of the property in 2022 and again in 2023 about its land purchase. About 50 residents in total attended those meetings, and just two expressed concerns over the issues of traffic and lights, according to the suit. The school met with the May Township board in May of 2023, and minutes from that meeting show that the board had no concerns beyond lighting at the time, according to the suit. The board asked if the school could use “down lighting” for its athletic fields and the school said it would.
In June, Hugo City Council approved a conditional use permit for the school, but the May Township board voted to extend the decision deadline to early August.
The suit says it was at a subsequent meeting in July that May Town Board Chairman John Pazlar objected to the plan for the first time, saying “the main concern, based on public comment, is to keep Town of May rural.”
The school said its plans for the May Township portion of its property had been submitted eight months prior to the July meeting, and that its plans met requirements of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
