MANKATO — The state of Minnesota and the cities of Mankato and North Mankato have reached a cost-sharing agreement that will allow $23 million in needed repairs to be made to the Veterans Memorial Bridge starting early next year.
The work will close the connection between Mankato and North Mankato’s downtowns for much of 2026, pushing traffic to one of the two remaining crossings of the Minnesota River.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation had been warning the city of the increasingly urgent need for repairs to the bridge since pieces of concrete began falling from the span in 2019. But as recently as two years ago, the Mankato City Council was threatening to delay the start of the project after MnDOT suggested the city’s share of the work could be as much as $9.44 million.
Since then, outside funding has been successfully sought by city staff to reduce the burden that would have fallen on Mankato property owners.
“The city has obtained significant amounts of both federal and state aid for our share of the improvement,” City Manager Susan Arntz said in asking for City Council approval to enter into the agreement with MnDOT and North Mankato.
While the contract has Mankato paying $8.78 million, all but $1.43 million will be covered by federal grants and state assistance. North Mankato’s obligation is $995,000 with the state covering the remainder of what is estimated as a $23 million project to provide a new bridge deck and other improvements to the 39-year-old bridge. If contractors offer to do the work at better-than-anticipated prices when bids are sought, the share paid by Mankato property taxes could fall from $1.43 million to as little as $960,571.
“So we are hopeful the bids come in favorable,” Arntz said.
Mankato’s obligation to cover such a significant share of what was originally an entirely-state-owned structure dates back to a 2009 agreement between MnDOT and the city. At the time, the 1986 bridge had a design that seems strange in hindsight. It blocked Second Street just north of Main Street, forcing Second Street drivers to divert to Riverfront Drive or Broad Street.
Any drivers leaving downtown on Second Street and wanting to cross the river had to turn left on Main, right on Riverfront and right on Plum Street to get on the bridge. Drivers on the bridge looking to go downtown couldn’t turn right on Second and were instead forced to continue straight on Mulberry Street to Broad Street.
Looking to provide a more direct connection from downtown to the bridge and to restore Second Street as a continuous artery to and from downtown, city leaders proposed reconstructing the foot of the bridge to create a direct four-way intersection between the two legs of Second Street, Mulberry and the bridge. MnDOT would agree only if the city was willing to accept ownership — and all future repair and maintenance responsibilities — for the eastern 410 feet of the bridge. Those 410 feet represent 44% of the 933-foot total length of the bridge, which spans Riverfront Drive, the Union Pacific railroad tracks and the Minnesota River.
The City Council in February of 2009 accepted MnDOT’s terms, the Second Street fix was implemented and the financial repercussions of owning 44% of a bridge will be felt to some extent by Mankato taxpayers 16 years later. But because of the success in obtaining grants, a potential 44% share of the cost of repairs will now be no more than 6.2%, possibly as little as 4.2%.
North Mankato’s share is primarily due to MnDOT’s decision to expand the Vets Bridge project to also tackle repairs and improvements to the interchange between Belgrade Avenue (what Mulberry Street becomes on the North Mankato side of the river) and Highway 169. Repairs will be made to a second bridge that carries Belgrade over Highway 169, modern signal lights will be installed at the interchange and dual left-turn lanes will be added for traffic looking to head south on Highway 169.
The project will also make pedestrian improvements to the bridge to meet Americans With Disabilities Act standards.
And Mankato is finalizing designs of large emblems to be added to the Veterans Memorial Bridge to make it live up to its name. Council member Michael McLaughlin, a Marine Corps veteran and the veteran service officer for Blue Earth County, applauded that effort.
“I know you guys had meetings to make Veterans Bridge look, I guess, more ‘veterany’ if that’s a term, as opposed to just a concrete slab that connects the two cities,” he said. “So I’m grateful for that work.”
Preliminary concepts showed large metal emblems that would be placed on the railings on the bridge with a military star and laurel wreath on one side. On the other side were silhouettes of saluting members of the military accompanied by words that describe the virtues associated with their service such as “Courage,” “Commitment,” “Duty,” “Honor,” “Loyalty” and “Sacrifice.”
Because the amount of work planned for the bridge and interchange is so extensive, MnDOT has hopes to begin as soon as February and continue late into the fall of 2026. Once full-scale construction is underway, traffic will be detoured along Riverfront Drive and Highway 169 to the Highway 14 bridge and to the North Star Bridge.
Some work is expected to be required in the spring of 2027, but those finishing touches shouldn’t require the bridge to be closed to traffic.