Contractor Chosen for $1.4B Blatnik Bridge Replacement in Minnesota

Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture II, a partnership between Kraemer North America and Ames construction, has been named contractor for the project

test — Image courtesy of the Minnesota Dept. of Transportation

A team to helm the replacement of the $1.4-billion John A. Blatnik Bridge connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin has been named.

The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments have named Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture II contractor for a $1.4-billion design-build project to replace the John A. Blatnik Bridge, a vital freight and commuter link between Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis.

Virginia-based global infrastructure provider Parsons Corp. will provide design and construction oversight contracts for the project. Construction is slated to start in late 2026 and be completed in 2031. Parsons previously provided preliminary engineering design for bridge replacement.

A public meeting will be held in early September to give an update on the project including details on the design of the new bridge, according to the transportation depts.

MnDOT, which is overseeing 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 at project letting determines the winner.

Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture II’s bid was $930 million. The other firm that had been shortlisted for the project was Lunda Construction.

Opened in 1961, the 7,975-ft-long bridge carries traffic on Interstate 535 across the St. Louis Bay and is jointly owned by the Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments. The bridge, Minnesota’s second-longest, was originally designed for 154,000-lb loads, but its weight restrictions were reduced to 80,000 lbs in 2019, according to WisDOT. It now carries about 33,000 vehicles daily.

The new structure will be either a tied-arch or cable-stayed design, officials said previously.

“The primary challenges on the Blatnik Bridge replacement project will be traffic and stakeholder coordination, as well as working with a shorter construction season due to the cold climate," said Vincent Gastoni, principal project manager for Parsons. The project calls for construction of an 8,300-ft-long structure to replace the existing bridge on the same alignment.

"This is a vital piece of infrastructure between Minnesota and Wisconsin, relied on by thousands of drivers every day," Gastoni said. "Its location over the port of Duluth-Superior, home to 1,000-ft-long lake freighters that haul ore to the eastern US, adds to the traffic and stakeholder coordination challenges."

In 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 follow the existing alignment with the addition of a shared-use path.

The replacement follows completion in October 2025 of the $500-million, five-year rebuild of the I-35/I-535/U.S. 53 interchange, known locally as the “Can of Worms," and which feeds into the port area. Project construction manager and general contractor Kraemer North America partnered with Ames Construction on that project as well.