Stillwater Bridge (St. Croix River)

Beginning August 1, 2005, the Minnesota Department of Transportation closed the bridge to perform substantial repairs at a cost of $5 million provided by Congress. The project included renovating the tender's house so that it would conform to modern safety standards while maintaining historical preservation. On November 11, 2005, the bridge re-opened to traffic after the bridge deck had been replaced. In July 2008 a truck carrying lumber exceeded the height clearance of the bridge and struck its structure as it tried to cross. The bridge had to be closed for repairs, and reopened on August 2, 2008. In 2012 the bridge was closed again for a construction project to make more steel repairs. The St. Croix River Crossing Project of MnDOT called for the construction of a brand new, four-lane bridge less than a mile downriver and the conversion of the Stillwater Bridge to pedestrian and bicycle use. Originally, construction of this bridge was planned to start in 2024, but legislation was passed requiring the Department of Transportation to address aging bridges by 2018, and the start date was moved up to 2013. However, on March 11, 2010, a federal judge ruled that the government had violated its rules in approving the bridge design, which sent the process back to an earlier stage. In 2009 Minneapolis architectural model builder Feyereisen Studios completed a model of the Stillwater Lift Bridge. The idea to build a physical model of the Stillwater Lift Bridge was undertaken in an effort to enlist the assistance of the disabled community, so as to make it easier for everyone to visualize and clearly understand the project. Unlike most architectural models, the model of the Stillwater Lift Bridge was designed so that the visually impaired could explore it by sense of touch. The architectural model builders enlisted the help of the visually impaired while creating the model, and utilized various unconventional materials, including magnets to make breakaway lamp posts, sandpaper to indicate detectable warnings, raised crosswalk markings to indicate the crosswalk, and fuzzy grass. Everything on the model was labeled with both large text and Braille to enable people with low vision to understand the plans for the bridge. ==Shortcomings==

Because the bridge feeds directly into downtown Stillwater on the Minnesota side, gridlock often occurred and traffic could back up on Minnesota State Highway 36 for many miles, especially on weekends and during the summer. The effect was made worse whenever the bridge was raised. The bridge's mechanisms had remained essentially unaltered since its opening in 1931 and on occasion became stuck. In addition, the bridge had been deemed "structurally deficient" by inspectors, receiving a sufficiency rating of 32.8 on a 100-point scale, as of June 23, 2008. Because of the bridge's design, it was considered "fracture critical"; there was no built-in redundancy to prevent the entire structure from collapsing if one component fails. In comparison, the I-35W Mississippi River bridge, another fracture-critical bridge that collapsed on August 1, 2007, received a sufficiency rating of 50. The bridge had a height restriction of and a weight restriction of 40 tons. == Gallery ==

File:Birdseye view of the Stillwater Lift Bridge and the Commander Building, Stillwater, Minnesota - DPLA - bbee38661018031ea76c1485bc2c2efd (cropped).jpg|Birdseye view of the Stillwater Lift Bridge and the Commander Building, Stillwater, Minnesota File:Fountain in Lowell Park near the Stillwater Lift Bridge, Stillwater, Minnesota - DPLA - 350de7bb19cd41a119d5ee00bb5bc34f (cropped).jpg|The fountain in Lowell Park near the Stillwater Lift Bridge in Stillwater, Minnesota File:Stillwater Lift Bridge and Lowell Park Gazebo flooding Stillwater, Minnesota - DPLA - d2b0933c9703809efdd8ce95abb4afc2 (cropped).jpg|Stillwater Liftbridge and Lowell Park Gazebo Flooding File:Stillwater Lift Bridge, Stillwater Minnesota - DPLA - af424b4aa7d481d6e417b920daba645a (cropped).jpg|Flooding up to the deck of the Stillwater Lift Bridge in Stillwater, Minnesota ==See also==