Final repairs to begin on Sabo bike bridge

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Crews will begin making final repairs next week to the Minneapolis bike and pedestrian bridge where support cables broke loose in February.

Workers will install and retrofit several plates on the pylon of the Martin Olav Sabo Bridge. The structure will close to all bicycle and pedestrian traffic until the work is finished in early December.

A pair of suspension cables broke loose last winter when one of the plates fractured. An engineering firm hired to find the cause of the fracture concluded that wind-induced cable vibrations caused the plates to crack.

The replacement plates are designed to withstand the fatigue that caused the cracking.

The Sabo bridge is a 215-foot-long suspension bridge. It opened in November 2007.