The Minnesota River crossing at Chaska consists of a mile long highway causeway, a 500 foot long bridge on the north end, and this smaller 250 foot long bridge on the south end. For much of the length of the causeway, the main river channel flows along the west side of the roadway, which would be the left in the photo above.

These photos show the smaller backchannel river crossing. This was once a narrow 2 lane bridge. Since MN-DOT has plans to make this river crossing into a 4 lane roadway, the new 1998 bridge was built as a 4 lane bridge. The main channel bridge has also been replaced and built as a 4 lane bridge, so it is expected that MN-DOT will complete the 4 lane project soon (perhaps by 2010).

The photos above and below show a typical river crossing headed northbound. The photo above is approaching the backchannel bridge as we descend into the river valley. The photo below shows the bridge just as we are approaching the south end of the structure. Note that half of the bridge deck remains unused.

These two photos are views of the west face of the backchannel bridge from two slightly different angles. The bridge looks surprisingly long when viewed from the side as compared to how short it looks when crossing the structure at highway speeds.