WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) - The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved a long-debated four-lane bridge over the St. Croix River between Hudson Wisconsin and Stillwater Minnesota.
Senate Democrat Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota calls the approval a “milestone” for the project.
The measure now goes to the House – where it’s generating at least some opposition. That’s nothing new for the St. Croix Bridge, which has been debated for almost a half-century.
Supporters say it would move heavy commuter traffic out of Stillwater, where thousands of drivers use an aging 80-year-old lift bridge each day.
Klobuchar says people in the St. Croix Valley deserve a safer and more efficient alternative.
But opponents say Congress has no business going around the river’s federal protections.
The National Park Service says the bridge would violate the St. Croix’s status under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.
The new bridge would cost up to $690 million.
Minnesota House Democrat Betty McCollum favors a smaller bridge that would cost half as much. But critics say the alternative bridge would remain in Stillwater and cause traffic tie-ups, while the larger bridge would go to the south of town and hook up with Minnesota’s Highway 36 to the Twin Cities area.
Governors of both Wisconsin and Minnesota support the larger bridge – as do both of Wisconsin’s U.S. senators.
