An Ethical Argument against the New Stillwater Bridge Design

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In the fall of this year a new bridge south of Stillwater Minnesota will begin construction to replace the aging 82 year old Stillwater Lift Bridge.  The plan is to make this new bridge an extradosed bridge, a cross between a standard girder and a suspension bridge, in order to reduce the impact on the areas scenery.  This would be only the 2^nd extradosed bridge built in this country following the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in Connecticut.   The extradosed design is meant to keep the bridge deck below the bluffs while minimizing the number of piers in the river thus, reducing the adverse affects on the areas scenery.  This bridge, while environmentally friendly, may have price issues as the bridge is estimated to cost 700 million dollars by comparison; the new I-35W Bridge cost just 234 million dollars.  It has also been said that these bridge types tend to cost more then the standard girder bridges that are more commonly seen in the United States.  So the question remains, are the costs of this bridge worth it in order to protect Stillwater’s scenery? Personally, I feel that the economic impact of this bridge along with the inexperience our civil engineers have in building extradosed bridges could compromise the safety of this project.   This design however was brought forth with good intentions that should be analyzed closely.

For environmental activists the old Stillwater Lift Bridge was seen as a scenic landmark that they needed to protect.  Thanks to there efforts the lift bridge will be turned into a pedestrian bridge following the construction of the new one which is to be located directly south.  It was this environmental activism that lead to the extradosed bridge design being proposed.  Minnesota state legislature decided that it would be best if the new bridge impacted the surrounding area as little as possible.  Therefore, contractors came up with the revolutionary extradosed bridge design in order to not only preserve the environment but to serve as one of Minnesota’a premier bridges.  However, at a cost of more then twice that of the new I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis coupled with a lack of experience we could be compromising our own safety just to preserve a pretty view.

Since this bridge brings with it a hefty price tag there will be pressure on the designers of this bridge to stay under budget.  Therefore, if costs turn out to be higher then anticipated safety features could be left out.   Furthermore, because of the fact that an extradosed bridge has never been built in the state of Minnesota before the designers will have very little experience working with this type of design.  This could lead to fatal errors in the design that would leave the bridge structurally deficient from the day it opens.  If this were to happen, years down the road we could see another collapse of a Minnesota bridge costing the state millions and taking with it several lives.  Therefore, I believe it would be in the best interest of the citizens of Minnesota if this bridge design were scrapped in favor of a cheaper and possibly safer standard girder bridge.