Dive Brief:
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The building of massive bridge spans in Minnesota, New York, Washington state and elsewhere has created jobs for more than just construction workers: The projects have spawned a booming tourist market for curious onlookers willing to pay for guided bridge construction tours.
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The Associated Press reported Sunday that paddlewheel boat tours on the St. Croix River fill to their 350-passenger capacity three times a month with tourists willing to pay $10 apiece for views of work in progress on the mile-long span of bridge that will connect Minnesota and Wisconsin. In New York, passengers pay up to $93 for a lunchtime cruise — meal included — down the Hudson River to watch progress on the new, 3.1-mile Tappan Zee bridge.
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In Washington, hundreds of curiosity-seekers vie to win a monthly lottery, whose 30 winners get a free walking tour of the construction zone on the State Route 520 Floating Bridge. The sightseers are equipped with helmets and reflective vests, are advised to wear “heavy footwear,” and are required to sign a liability waiver before they are allowed to participate in the tour.
Dive Insight:
To a contractor working on one, a construction site seems far from the typical tourist attraction. But to the lay onlooker, the building of a monumental structure can be awe-inspiring and seem historic.
“It’s not the 7th Wonder of the World,” a retired physicist on the St. Croix boat tour, told an Associated Press reporter. “But certainly for us it’s a big wonder.”
Karen LeNehan, who by year’s end will have led 400 visitors — who come by the busloads with their Cub Scout troops and Rotary Clubs — on tours of the George V. Voinovich Bridge over Ohio’s Cuyahoga River, told the AP: “You don’t get a major interstate highway bridge every day in your town. … The larger the project is, the more interest there is.”
Plus, transportation officials said, taxpayers like to see how their states are spending their money.
