April 17, 2025 – Fox21
DULUTH, Minn. — A brand new alliance between businesses across the Blatnik Bridge met today to discuss future plans.
The Twin Ports Business Alliance is made up of a group of local business owners and leaders. They say they will continue to meet leading up to the anticipated Blatnik Bridge construction.
They are collaborating on topics such as affected tourism, and how to get the community more involved with construction. Some ideas included boat tours, and even school trips to witness this historic project while it’s happening.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation shared potential designs for the bridge. Construction itself is expected to begin in 2027, and clean up should wrap up around 2030.
Being able to form this alliance of business owners seems to be a nothing short of a happy accident according to one official.
“I think we can treat this as a blessing in disguise. The challenge is that the bridge is going to get shut down, and we all know that,” said Tony Bronson, the president of Canal Park Business Association. “If what can come out of that is this new alliance between both sides of the bridge, something that can last beyond just the bridge construction period. I think that we’re all winners.”
One of the official says with the announcement of the new bridge somebody needed to step up to address this. But at the end of the day, she’s glad it happened.
“This is the biggest bridge project and we want to bring that big bridge energy together for supporting our businesses,” said Kelly Peterson, the co-founder of the Twin Ports Business Alliance. “Having everybody that was here, had something to say. Ideas that they want, or questions about why something was happening. We want to have that collaboration, and have that open door so that we’re listening and also positively responding.”
This meeting is the first of many for the ‘Twin Ports Business Alliance’.