Chris Kemp

Sophomore Krystle Pagac and her roommate senior Danielle Hellenbrand headed out for a walk around 7 a.m. Friday, as they often do.

Taking a new route, they planned their walk so they would be back in time for Pagac’s 9 a.m. class.

After a 4-mile walk along the river trail, the pair encountered an obstacle at the bottom of the Clairemont Avenue bridge.

“We were having a great morning walk up until we realized there was no sidewalk (to get over the Chippewa River),” Hellenbrand said.

The pair were unaware that the bridge construction required the closure of the sidewalks, forcing them to backtrack to a bus stop to get a ride up the hill.

Construction to rebuild the westbound bridge over the river will divert drivers into reduced lanes until the project is completed in mid-November, said Rick Shermo, project development supervisor for the Department of Transportation in Eau Claire.

During that time, a shuttle service will take pedestrians and bikers across the river during peak times – a service Pagac said she wishes she knew about sooner.

“I ended up missing class, just because we planned it out perfect, but then we had to backtrack,” she said. “It would have been nice to know they had a shuttle.”

The $5.1 million project to replace the westbound bridge was needed because it was built around 1940, Shermo said. The current bridge had structural deficiencies and weight capacity problems, he said.

The new bridge will be widened to three lanes, as well as have an 8-foot separated pedestrian trail, he said.

For the remainder of the project, all traffic will be diverted to the other bridge and reduced to two westbound lanes and one eastbound lane, he said. Traffic speed is also reduced to 35 mph through the construction zone.

“If you have alternative routes available to you, you may want to consider that during peak times,” Shermo said.

The regional trail that crosses underneath the bridge also has been closed and will remain closed until early July, he said.

“It’s done in the interest of safety,” he said, “so that pedestrians are not getting in the mix with the construction equipment.”

As soon as beams over the trail are in place and workers are done working over the top of it, the trail will be reopened, he said.

“I think that once Clairemont starts to get more busy around moving time, I think that it will be a pain,” Hellenbrand said. “But you just have to think ahead of time that it’s going to be a little slower.”