The westbound lanes of Crosstown Hwy. 62 were back open for the Thursday morning commute after a portion of a pedestrian bridge that a truck damaged earlier this week was removed.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation shut down the westbound lanes between Interstate 35W and Hwy. 100 after a truck with an oversized load hit the bottom of the pedestrian bridge near Valley View Road on Tuesday afternoon, causing significant structural damage.
The collision caused concrete and parts of the steel structure to crash, prompting officials to shut down the highway, said MnDOT spokesperson Anne Meyer.
The agency then closed the westbound lanes to remove beams and the bridge deck over the highway, said spokesperson Kirsten Klein.
Crews finished removing the damaged bridge overnight and reopened the lanes in time for Thursday's rush hour.
No pedestrians were on the bridge at the time of the crash. The bridge had been closed since February after another truck with a higher load than allowed struck it. MnDOT has been waiting for parts to arrive to make the repairs needed after the earlier crash, and was scheduled to do the work in October, Klein said.
MnDOT plans to keep the bridge in place.
"People do use it," Klein said.
The bridge, which connects Lake Cornelia in Rosland Park with a neighborhood on the north side of the Crosstown, was originally built in the late 1960s or early 1970s, she said.
