Motorists who travel Highway 24 near the Mississippi River bridge in Clearwater should plan for delays while crews close the road up to four times each weekday beginning Monday, Dec. 19.
The closures were originally scheduled to begin Dec. 5, but were postponed due to water rising above the work site?Äôs temporary causeway.
The closures will occur from sunrise to sunset, Mondays through Fridays, and will be complete by Dec. 23. Each closure will last up to 15 minutes with flaggers holding traffic on both directions of Highway 24 near the bridge spanning the Mississippi River. No closures will occur during inclement weather.
The daytime road closures are needed while crews deliver oversized concrete beams as part of the new Highway 24 bridge project. Those beams will eventually carry the bridge deck that span Highway 24 across the Mississippi river, just east of downtown Clearwater. In all, 46 beams will be delivered. Each beam is 178 feet long and weighs about 110 tons. The beams are manufactured in Minnesota, are delivered using specialty trucking equipment and will be placed atop the recently completed bridge piers through late December 2016.
When complete in summer 2018, the new Highway 24 Clearwater bridge project will:
?Ä¢ Replace the existing 57-year old Highway 24 bridge with a new two-lane bridge with wide shoulders and a multipurpose trail.
?Ä¢ Preserve an important river crossing that serves local and regional travel, including heavy summertime tourism traffic.
?Ä¢ Improve local utilities.
For more information, to sign up for the project?Äôs email updates or to view the project?Äôs webcam, visit the project?Äôs website at www.dot.state.mn.us/d3/hwy24/.
For news and information from MnDOT in Central Minnesota, follow on Twitter @MnDOTCentral, or visit www.mndot.gov/d3.
For real-time travel information anywhere in Minnesota, visit www.511mn.org.