From St. Paul to Louisiana, Plans Abound For MississippiMilestones.

This article reports that Mark Twain's fictional Mississippi River rafters, Huckleberry Finn and Jim, would see quite a collection of bridges if they navigated that fabled waterway today. Many of the river's 100-plus crossings are reaching the end of their design life and planners along the length of the river are investigating rehabilitation or replacements. Traffic, economic development and seismic retrofits are spurring the recent spate of work. "This is a period when bridge construction is flourishing up and down the river," says Steve Hague, bridge engineer with HNTB, Kansas City, and a veteran of some 40 Mississippi River projects. "A lot of the bridges were built in the 1920s and '30s, so it's time to look at replacements."