The St. Croix is approximately 1800 feet wide at this point. The bridge is 1,050 feet long, plus there is a 750 foot causeway on the Wisconsin side of the river. The bridge consists of six fixed spans of 140 feet each, plus a 140 foot vertical lift section.
The Stillwater Lift Bridge is not able to handle the traffic that desires to cross the river. Traffic often backs up all the way through Stillwater and down highway 95 and MN-36. A new 4-lane freeway bridge has been proposed, but just about every interest group in the free world has lined up against it. While the Stillwater bridge fits in with the image of Stillwater, I advocate that quality of life would be higher for locals, tourism would increase, and the folks living in Western Wisconsin would have better access to the twin cities if a new high bridge was built a few miles down river.
On April 15, 2008, MN-DOT opened the Stillwater Lift Bridge for the first time in the 2008 season. At about 10:00 AM, the bridge lifted up in the air, but then refused to come back down. Engineers and technicians were brought in, and spent about 4 hours locating a bad electrical connection. The bridge was finally brought back down about 2:00 PM in the afternoon, just in time to clear out the traffic backup and get ready for the evening commuter rush. The bridge became stuck in the open position again at 12:30 PM on September 26, 2008, when sensors on the bridge malfunctioned, and refused to allow the bridge to close. The bridge was stuck in the open position for just over 8 hours.
On July 7,2008, a boom truck entered the bridge from the Wisconsin side of the river and became jammed under the upper bridge beams. It took 5 hours to remove the truck and inspect the bridge for damage. The bridge was reopened to cars and pick-up trucks, but due to the extensive damage to the structure, truck traffic will be banned from the bridge until the bridge can be repaired.
Update—on July 10, 2008, MN-DOT announced the plan for fixing the Stillwater Lift Bridge. The bridge will be closed for several weeks starting July 16, 2008, and remain closed through early August. This time is needed to replace the damaged steel structural members. Due to an expected influx of traffic for an annual festival, the bridge will be temporarily opened to cars for the weekend of July 23 to July 28.
