Diana Nixon
Dear editor:
On Aug. 1, 2007, the I35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed.
The new bridge is ahead of the contractually committed date of Dec. 24, 2008, and is anticipated to be open to traffic between mid-September and mid-October with a 100-year life span, 10 lanes of traffic (five in each direction, which is two lanes wider than the former bridge), 189 feet wide (the previous bridge was 113 feet wide), and 13-ft. wide right shoulders and 14-ft. wide left shoulders (the previous bridge had no shoulders).
This bridge carried more than 140,000 vehicles a day according to the Minnesota Deptartment of Transport.
Why am I telling you this? In October, 2007 while visiting family in Minnepolis, who periodically used the I35W bridge, I made a joke to my husband that the bridge probably would be completed before Central Avenue in Fort Frances—it was supposed to be a joke.
Furthermore, who thought it would be a really good idea to do the Noden Causeway, the subway, and Central Avenue all at the same time? Trying to get in or out of Fort Frances this summer has been no laughing matter.
Signed,
Diana Nixon
Fort Frances, Ont.
