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Last Friday, the bridge over Interstate 90 at Oakland Avenue West/Highway 105 opened after its reconstruction.

While it was nice to have the inconvenience of construction behind us for a brand new access across the interstate, this opinion piece is not about that, but rather how the bridge looks.

We’re not sure how many people pay attention to a bridge and of those people, how many compare the old to the new, but it’s at least worth noting because that bridge is a first impression for people coming to Austin.

It’s fresh surfacing and brick inlaid supports give this first bridge in the six-bridge Minnesota Department of Transportation project a revitalized appearance and it comes down to a manual the City of Austin established by a group of people that care about representing Austin in the best way.

According to Austin City Engineer Steven Lang, a group of community members worked with MnDOT to develop a Visual Quality Manual in 2015. The manual lays out a sought after look of aesthetic items such as railings, lighting, surface finishes, landscaping and sidewalk/trail widths.

Later, it was adopted by MnDOT and City Council to plan future bridge projects. It was used for the first time on the 11th Drive NE bridge in 2017, followed by the 28th Street NE bridge a few years later and again, on this latest project to replace bridges over I-90.

This was a collective effort to establish a best-foot-forward approach for the city and now, with this first bridge completed, it should give us incentive to look forward to when the entire project is finished.

Again, you may not pay that much attention to the bridge you cross or go over, but we should at least be satisfied that a group of people established a protocol to add one more factor for people to consider when visiting Austin.