Highway 24 Bridge

Highway 24 Bridge
Coordinates	45°25′04″N 94°02′37″W
Carries	Two lanes of MN 24
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	Clearwater, Minnesota
Maintained by	Minnesota Department of Transportation
ID number	6557
Characteristics
Design	Steel girder bridge
Total length	1144 feet
Width	38 feet
Longest span	148 feet
Clearance below	42 feet
History
Opened	1958
Location

The Highway 24 Bridge is a steel girder bridge that spans the Mississippi River between Clearwater, Minnesota and Clear Lake, Minnesota. It was designed and built in 1958 by the Minnesota Department of Transportation. The bridge is longer than any other bridge upstream of the Richard P. Braun Bridge in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. This is because the Highway 24 bridge crosses a river road and three spans of floodplain before actually crossing the Mississippi.

Proposed future bridge

The two-lane highway 24 serves as a major route for weekend recreational traffic transferring between Interstate 94 and U.S. Highway 10. As such it is badly over capacity and congestion is predicted to worsen on weekdays as the area becomes developed. To relieve congestion, a new freeway connection is proposed that would cross the river several miles to the east. Construction is currently proposed for the 2015-2023 timeframe, but may be sped up as this is considered a high priority project and more funding for transportation projects has recently become available due to a gasoline tax increase. It is not known if the new crossing will carry the MN 24 designation or a different number, as the present highway between Clear Lake and Clearwater would undoubtedly be transferred to local jurisdiction. The existing bridge will be maintained for local traffic and is proposed to be replaced in a separate project around 2040.

See also

• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

References

• Costello, Mary Charlotte (2002). Climbing the Mississippi River Bridge by Bridge, Volume Two: Minnesota. Cambridge, MN: Adventure Publications. ISBN 0-9644518-2-4. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)