Less than year after the Mendota Bridge renovation was completed, the Minnesota Department of Transportation said Thursday that higher railings will be installed on the span.
At an estimated cost of $2.5 million, the railings will be raised by a foot on the bridge that carries Hwy. 55 traffic as well as bicyclists and pedestrians from the Fort Snelling area to Mendota Heights.
Construction is expected to begin next summer and finish by fall, according to a news release.
The move comes after cyclists raised safety concerns over the height of the railings, which MnDOT installed last fall as part of a larger revamp. Those railings were the same height as the historic bridge’s original rails: 42 inches.
But the railings were lower than those that had been on the bridge for years, and many cyclists said they felt unsafe riding next to them.
One commenter in a local cyclist Facebook group said last fall that they were “terrified”: “Ended up hugging the car side, with the thinking I’d rather fall into the highway than off the bridge.”
Raising the height of the railings back to 54 inches will meet guidelines listed on MnDOT’s website.
“This would have been a good thing to do two years ago,” said Michael Wojcik, executive director of advocacy and education group Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. “I think if they talked to anyone who rode a bike, they would have known the height [of the railing] was a safety issue.”
