Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, who has set a March 15 deadline for congressional action on the proposed St. Croix River crossing, followed up with a letter to U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, an opponent of the $690 million project, saying there is no time to change the bridge's design.
Dayton cited a public statement by McCollum suggesting it was time to reach a "compromise" on the size of the bridge, which his fellow Democrat would like to scale back. In a letter dated Thursday, Dayton said time is running out on the funding for the bridge and that a redesign is not an option. It's either "proceed with the bridge as currently proposed," he said, or "go back to the drawing boards." (Update: McCollum's chief of staff, Bill Harper, points out that any new bridge over the St. Croix, unless it fits into the footprint of the old one, would need a congressional exemption from the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, whether that occurs before or after the deadline set by Dayton).
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