These are just three photos from an event I attended the other day at the Orchard Street Bridge over I-494. The event was a dedication of the newly expanded 494. The theme of the event was “From Rubble to Reality” reflecting the long demolition process necessary to remove the old sections of 494, crushing the debris into rubble, trucking the rubble away, and then finally replacing the rubble with a new concrete freeway. The photo on the left shows a small gift bag of the actual rubble that was given out to everyone that attended the event to remind us of the time and energy it takes to build a road project like 494.
The event was attended by elected officials from State and City government. The middle picture is Eden Prairie Mayor Nancy Tyra-Lukens addressing the group about the positive impacts the new 494 will have in Eden Prairie and the west metro. To the right of the Mayor is Governor Pawlenty. The Governor spoke about how state government had moved this project up on MnDOT’s priority list to get it completed sooner than expected.
In the picture to the right, Lt. Governor Carol Molnau addressed the group both as Lt. Governor and as Commissioner of MnDOT. She holds both titles. She talked about the effectiveness of the “design-build” process in bringing MnDOT construction projects to faster completion. That may be true, but there is another side to the “design-build” process that I’ll get into on another day. Suffice it to say that on this project, it worked pretty well. Also in the photo with Lt. Governor Molnau are the Mayors of Edina, Minnetonka, Eden Prairie and Plymouth, all of whom contributed a few thoughts to the program.
It was a hot day for September, but it was worth it. It was a good event for a project worthy of such recognition. There were lots of honks from the cars and truckers on 494 going under the bridge during the program. We interpreted those honks as a sign of appreciation for the project. That’s what I think they meant anyway.
