The Minnesota and Wisconsin departments of transportation have named contractor Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture II for a $1.4 billion design-build project to replace the John A. Blatnik Bridge, a vital freight and travel link between Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin.
Virginia-based global infrastructure provider Parsons Corp. will provide design and construction supervision contracts for the project. Construction is scheduled to begin in late 2026 and be completed in 2031. Parsons previously provided a preliminary engineering design for the bridge replacement.
A public meeting will be held in early September to provide an update on the project, including details on the design of the new bridge, according to transportation departments.
MnDOT, which oversees the project, uses a best-value system for design-build projects that combines a bidder’s technical score and price into a single adjusted score. The lowest adjusted score in project rent determines the winner.
The Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture II offer was $930 million. The other company that had been shortlisted for the project was Lunda Construction.
Opened in 1961, the 7,975-foot-long bridge carries traffic on Interstate 535 across Bay St. Louis and is jointly owned by Minnesota and Wisconsin. transportation departments The bridge, the second longest in Minnesota, was originally designed for loads of 154,000 pounds, but its weight restrictions were reduced to 80,000 pounds in 2019, according to WisDOT. It currently transports around 33,000 vehicles per day.
The new structure will be a tied or cable-stayed arch design, officials previously said.
“The main challenges of the Blatnik Bridge Replacement Project will be coordinating traffic and stakeholders, as well as working with a shorter construction season due to the cold weather,” said Vincent Gastoni, Parsons Principal Project Manager. The project calls for the construction of an 8,300-foot-long structure to replace the existing bridge on the same alignment.
“This is a vital piece of infrastructure between Minnesota and Wisconsin that thousands of drivers depend on every day,” Gastoni said. “Its location above the Duluth-Superior Harbor, home to 1,000-foot-long lake freighters that transport ore to the eastern United States, adds to the challenges of coordinating traffic and stakeholders.”
By early 2024, the two states secured more than $1 billion in federal funding for the project, with MnDOT and WisDOT contributing additional funds.
MnDOT and WisDOT began developing the Blatnik Bridge replacement project in 2020. The two states evaluated more than 25 design alternatives and narrowed the list to five for further review before choosing to stick with the existing alignment with the addition of a shared-use route.
The replacement follows completion in October 2025 of the $500 million, five-year reconstruction of the I-35/I-535/US 53 interchange, known locally as the “Can of Worms,” which feeds the Port Area. Project construction manager and general contractor Kraemer North America also partnered with Ames Construction on this project.
