Heavy Traffic Continues In Brainerd As Washington Street Bridge Remains Closed

Heavy traffic continued in Brainerd today after the washout of a storm drain near the Washington Street bridge forced the westbound lane to be shut down for a second consecutive day.

The opening of one lane on College Drive offered some relief to the traffic jams. However, the Washington Street bridge’s westbound lane is expected to still be closed tomorrow. Motorists are encouraged to stay patient as the Minnesota Department of Transportation works to fill the 14×25 sinkhole.

“The bridge engineer out of St. Paul came out and did a structural analysis of the bridge to review that and everything came back fine, so then we started lining up resources to fill in the hole, it’s unfortunate that the city’s projects both lined up with us; if this would have happened a week from now, the city projects would both be done, I believe,” said MnDOT District Maintenance Engineer Jamie Hookriede.

No exact date has been set on when the Washington Street bridge will be completely open. Lakeland News will keep you covered until the traffic is back to normal in Brainerd.