A first look at the design for the new Blatnik Bridge arrives next week. Minnesota and Wisconsin will present the design for the $1.8 billion I-535 replacement at a public open house on Wednesday, August 12, from 5 to 7 pm at the Superior High School Performing Arts Center, with a presentation at 5:15. The meeting covers the new bridge design and the construction timeline. The project runs on a design-build contract awarded to Ames-Kraemer Joint Venture II on a $930 million bid, with MnDOT and WisDOT as the owners. Construction starts this fall, and the bridge closes completely for four to five years beginning in early 2027. The new span, built for a 100-year life with $1.05 billion in federal funding, is due in 2032.
Sources: The Daily Reporter, August 4; MnDOT I-535 Blatnik Bridge project page
POLICY The water-utility cyberattack that started in Minnesota has gone national. What began with 30 Minnesota community water systems in late July has spread. The FBI and EPA issued a joint public advisory reporting that water and wastewater utilities in seven states have been hit since July 27, with some incidents degrading operations, and CISA updated its advisory (AA26-097A) on August 4 to reflect reported attacks across at least a dozen states. The activity targets internet-exposed programmable logic controllers, the Rockwell, Schneider, and Siemens devices that run treatment and distribution, and its pattern matches an Iran-linked group, though officials have not formally attributed it. CISA has urged every water and wastewater system to harden its operational technology now.
Sources: Cybersecurity Dive; Tenable, on CISA Advisory AA26-097A and the FBI/EPA joint PSA
BIZ A European heatwave and drought are throttling nuclear output. Low rivers and high water temperatures forced cuts across the continent in late July. Hungary’s Paks plant pulled back 491 megawatts, one quarter of its capacity, as the Danube fell to record lows. Romania’s Cernavădă took a 700-megawatt CANDU unit fully offline on July 28 when Danube flow ran near a third of its normal July average. Both the Danube and the Rhine hit their lowest-ever July readings at key gauges. The exposure is in reactors and other thermoelectric plants that need river or lake water to cool. Permits cap how warm the discharge can be, so a hot, low-flow summer squeezes output just as demand peaks. In Minnesota, Xcel’s Monticello and Prairie Island plants sit on the Mississippi, and the state’s growing data centers and municipal systems all draw and discharge under Clean Water Act thermal limits.
ENG New MnDOT design work out for bid. The department’s Professional/Technical notices now list a final-design solicitation for Highway 100 (SP 2735-212), a mill-and-overlay across five municipalities that also carries bridge rehabilitation and signal replacements, posted August 4 with responses due August 28. Also open are preliminary and final design for Highway 61 from Lester River to Superior Street in Duluth (due August 25), contaminated- and regulated-materials oversight on the I-494 Design-Build Project 2 (due August 20), and the I-94 Fish Lake System interchange study in Maple Grove (due August 11).
Source: MnDOT Professional/Technical Consultant Services notices, August 2026
Close out the summer on the field: ACEC Minnesota’s Foundation Softball Tournament brings 16 member-firm teams together on Saturday, September 19 to support the next generation of engineers, and the four-session Emerging Leaders program for early-career staff runs this October and November. Sign up for both before spots fill up!
The (Almost) Daily Brief publishes most weekdays: policy, funding, workforce, and industry news for Minnesota’s engineering firms, in a few minutes of reading.
