U.S. side of car bridge to get facelift

Ken Johnston

Plans are in the works to give the Rainy River-Baudette International bridge a major facelift.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation announced Friday that tenders to sandblast and paint the U.S. side of the 40 year old bridge will be solicited March 28, 2003. It is hoped that work will begin in May and be completed by sometime in July.
Karen Bedeau of Mn/DoT said that Ontario has indicated that they will look at doing their side of the bridge in the future and perhaps in 2004.
Some minor repairs will also be done to the bridge. Three floor beams that have weakened as a result of corrosion will be strengthened. The work will take place on three approach spans and three of the truss spans.
Since the bridge was last painted with a lead based paint, the sandblasting will require a special containment system that will catch all the paint chips and blasting material in order to prevent polluting the Rainy River below.
Mn/DoT said that there will be some interruptions to traffic flows and that motorists will experience single lane traffic throughout the duration of the project.