DULUTH — Rust and corrosion plague the Aerial Lift Bridge, and the 2,300-seat auditorium at the Duluth Convention Center — the city’s largest performing arts space — dates back to 1966.
The bridge and the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center (DECC) are two of the city’s most visible and popular tourist attractions and are in need of millions in repairs and updates. Projects to address them are among nine that city officials have prioritized as they lobby for state bond money this year.
Duluth leaders have sought improvements to the 500-foot-long historic lift bridge for years. It needs about $20 million in repairs, and the city is lobbying for $8.2 million to add to city funds and state and federal money.
Mayor Roger Reinert told a crowd gathered for Duluth and St. Louis County Days at the Capitol last month that the bridge is “iconic” for the entire state of Minnesota, along with being the only way to access “an entire neighborhood of Duluth.”
This and other priority projects from the city are fundamental not only to Duluth, but to the entire region, he said.
Average daily traffic crossing the bridge reaches more than 6,000 vehicles, and approximately 900 boats carrying 35 million short tons of cargo pass underneath annually, city officials said.
The bridge needs significant structural repairs to the lift span and overhead truss and needs reconstruction of the cantilever pavement, among other updates.
DECC, home of Amsoil Arena and UMD Bulldog hockey, has faced decades of deferred maintenance in its various arenas. It received a $1 million line of credit from the city last fall to address the low reserves it still hasn’t reached, Executive Director Dan Hartman said. Leaders laid off a handful of full-time employees and cut hours for part-time workers last fall.
Because it’s a state convention center that serves an entire region, rather than being a city entity like the Rochester or Mankato convention centers, city officials haven’t always advocated for it, Hartman said, and problems have piled up.
DECC is asking for $6.2 million to pay for projects including Symphony Hall seating and a remodeled auditorium space for people with disabilities. It also needs a new escalator and replacement of faulty pipe fittings that force DECC to constantly run 190-degree water through the building’s lines. The renovation will reduce the heating costs of the complex by 40%.
“We’re just trying to get [complex] back to normal because it just hasn’t had the support that a facility like this would have,” Hartman said of the nine sites that fall under DECC’s purview.
The tourist center drives traffic to the city, which boosts the city’s economy, with visitors and convention attendees eating at restaurants, staying at hotels and paying to see the attractions, Hartman said. If it crumbles further, he said, it could hurt other businesses as well.
Duluth also lobbied for these projects:
• $6.7 million for upgrades and improvements to the treatment plant, which has a pump station more than 100 years old
• Nearly $11 million for rehabilitation of Lot D, to support the preparation of the contaminated coastal site for economic development
• $7 million to support the reconstruction of the Duluth Armory
• $25 million to help build an aircraft shelter for the Minnesota Air National Guard’s 148th Fighter Wing
• $15 million for a new community center and sports arena in West Duluth
• Funding to revise a plan drawn up by former Mayor Emily Larson’s administration to replace the downtown Duluth Public Library
• $14 million to replace the control tower at Duluth International Airport
