The Lowry Avenue Bridge across the Mississippi has been closed: Minneapolis 'singing' bridge goes silent and Lowry Avenue Bridge to be shut down
It always made me nervous driving across, with the steel grates instead of a proper paved roadbed. I am sure it was fine, except I like the illusion of surface under my car, which the steel grates prevented.
Too bad they couldn't time this with the reconstruction of Lowry Avenuetwo years ago, or have gotten the funding and design in place before they had to close it, so a year wouldn't be wasted with a closed bridge and no construction. Some of the designs shown on the Strib article (above) look good, certainly better than the I-35W bridge.
In my experience those metal grates are evil for motorcyclists. In addition to strangely effecting the steering (something akin to tramlining) they provide very little traction... and when wet or oily... forget about it.
Glad to see them go.