Ames Construction, the contractor on the US$187.5 million project, began closing the final gap of the new westbound I-90 bridge at 10pm on Tuesday 19 April. The pour consisted of 24m3 of concrete, 2.3t of reinforcing steel and about 365kg of post tensioning cables.
By 1:45am on Wednesday the Ames crew was placing the curing blankets and protective plastic over the new concrete filling the final gap.
The Dresbach Bridge project is a cooperative effort between the Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of transportation and is due for completion later this year.
The new crossing consists of two separate bridges parallel and upstream from the existing bridge. They are concrete box girder structures over the main river channel and precast concrete girders over the back channel.