Wisconsin DOT updates progress on Cobban Bridge replacement project

CHIPPEWA COUNTY, Wis. (WEAU) - The Cobban Bridge replacement project moves forward this week with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation setting the first concrete girders for the $4.7 bridge that will measure nearly 505 feet long.

On Tuesday, the first five of 20 girders were placed on the bridge, as the DOT used two cranes to move them into place.

In a post on Twitter Wednesday, the DOT said that the first concrete girders arrived from Janesville and were unloaded onto barges. A video and photos in the post show the girders being set along the bridge’s four piers.

Five girders each day Tuesday through Friday will be placed on the new bridge, which will be 504 feet and 10 inches long and 28 feet and 10 and a half inches wide. The new bridge will have two traffic lanes and sit about 10 feet above the Chippewa River, The new bridge will also have five spans, compared to just two for the old Cobban Bridge, which was removed last August. Construction began last August and is expected to be completed in October of this year.

A project manager said that there was some consideration towards turning the bridge into a walking path, but because the other crossing points for the river were further north and south, it was decided to reconstruct the bridge that crosses between the Town of Eagle Point and the Town of Arthur, or between Jim Falls and Cornell.

For more information on the project, which is being funded by both the state of Wisconsin and Chippewa County, you can visit the project page on the DOT website.

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