In early 2012, the U.S. House of Representatives had passed a bill to create a new bridge to replace the old Stillwater Lift Bridge. Now, in late 2014, the bridge is halfway to its 2016 deadline.

The lift bridge is about 80 years old. It must be replaced because of many safety issues.

Weight restriction and traffic are the main concerns with the lift bridge. Many larger vehicles cannot make it across the bridge without having problems and concerns.

Mayor Ken Harycki explained, “If there’s a real big fire in, say New Richmond, Stillwater would send trucks to help. And with the weight restrictions and everything else, not all of our equipment could get over the bridge.”

Construction Project Manager Terry Zoller agrees with Harycki.

“Most of it is because of traffic and safety,” stated Zoller. “It’s safe, it just doesn’t meet the high traffic standards.”

The lift bridge is not only being used by truckers and rescue vehicles. Lots of commuters and travelers go across the bridge as well.

“We have 18,000 vehicles a day travel over this bridge, and it just can’t handle 18,000 cars,” added Zoller.

While the lift bridge is slowly decaying, the new bridge is the second of its kind to be built in the United States.

“This bridge is a very unique bridge,” said Zoller. “It’s called an extradosed bridge. The reason they picked this bridge is because they wanted it to span as long as it could, yet they didn’t want the towers to be too high. They wanted to keep them at building level due to environmental issues.”

The bridge is not just one project though. There are three major projects that will complete the bridge.

Zoller stated, “One is the design build project, which is from highway 86 to 95, and west from Washington Avenue, which is all the dirt, sewer and degrading work. The bridge itself is two major jobs. One is a foundation project, which we built five foundation piers in the water. And then the main river bridge is what you see going on now.”

The new bridge is being build built to make the town safer. However, the current construction is hurting local businesses in the area.

The owner of Joseph’s Family Restaurant, Joe Kohler senior, said, “The impact to my restaurant is probably anywhere from 10-20% loss in sales due to the inconvenience.”

The new bridge will be ready for truckers, commuters and travelers by the fall of 2016 as long as everything goes as scheduled.