Motorists who use the Rockford Road overpass to cross Interstate 494 in Plymouth know the trip can be challenging. Traffic piles up daily during rush hours, and crashes are common.
Relief, in the form of a new bridge, is finally on the way.
On Tuesday, the city of Plymouth, with Hennepin County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation, begins a $16 million project to replace the bridge with one that will be wider and safer and feature dual left-turn lanes at intersections on both ends, said Michael Thompson, Plymouth's Public Works director.
"This is going to relieve capacity issues and bottlenecks and help [reduce] crashes," he said.
The bridge was built in 1965. It has two lanes in each direction, but it does not have dedicated left-turn lanes for motorists traveling from Rockford Road onto I-494.
Traffic queues up behind the left-turning drivers, creating long lines that stretch across the bridge and beyond during peak travel periods. Impatient motorists weave in and out of traffic, passing on the right or trying to sneak through a red light, only to be hit from behind or T-boned, Thompson said.
Over the past five years, police have been called to an average of 33 crashes on the bridge annually, or approximately three wrecks a month, according city data. The crashes resulted in minor fender benders to serious injuries.
The bridge now handles 39,000 vehicles a day, which is 26 times the volume of traffic for which it was built. The new bridge is expected to improve traffic flow, Thompson said.
