Short Shakopee bridge is long enough to cause a detour

Fifteen thousand drivers a day may have to take detours through Shakopee for three months next spring while an aging bridge near downtown is replaced, Scott County officials announced Monday.

The bridge is but 11 yards long, passing over a tiny creek. But it is on Hwy. 101, the main thoroughfare connecting downtown Shakopee with the world to the east: Savage, Burnsville and the rest of Dakota County.

Replacing the bridge is likely to cost about $1 million, officials have said. The money was contained in legislation passed at the Capitol last spring but vetoed by Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

The county shut down two of its four lanes in early November as a precaution while inspectors went to work. That shutdown will continue, officials said Monday.

"Extensive structural inspections" since then have led the county to decide that the bridge must be replaced next spring, according to the county's highway engineer, Mitch Rasmussen.

Which is not to say, however, that it's unsafe, officials added.

"The reinforcements in the bridge are intact and present no immediate danger to the public," said Lezlie Vermillion, director of public works.

"It's not a huge detour," she said. "It would have some effect, possibly, but how much is hard to say at the moment. People who come that way come there for a purpose" and won't easily be discouraged from doing so, she said.

The county will seek contractors late in January and open bids in February, officials said. Construction should begin by early March, with the road likely closed from March through June.