June 23, 2026

By Lane Kimble

A joint venture will get to lead the work replacing the critical Blatnik Bridge linking northwest Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Ames and Kraemer North America joined forces to win the Design-Build project, coming in with an estimated cost of about $930 million, MnDOT announced Tuesday. They beat out Wisconsin-based Lunda Construction Company.

MnDOT’s Design-Build process meant calculating an “adjusted score,” which divides a bidder’s overall price with its technical proposal score. The lower the adjusted score, the better.

Lunda actually posted a higher technical proposal score (93.20) than Ames/Kraemer (91.38) but also came in with a much higher proposal price, which inflated Lunda’s overall adjusted score.

MnDOT now has 60 days to finalize and formally award the contract, during which time the technical proposal remains confidential. MnDOT and WisDOT will hold a public meeting in early September to give an update on the project and reveal Ames/Kramer’s design plans.

The Blatnik Bridge opened in 1961 and serves as a key interstate crossing that serves the Great Lakes’ largest port and more than 30,000 vehicles a day. Wisconsin and Minnesota each pledged $400 million for the replacement project along with more than $1 billion from the federal government.

Crews will fully close the aging Blatnik Bridge in early 2027 throughout the process to build its replacement. The current construction schedule runs into 2032.