I know some of the issues, (I sit in monthly progress meetings with Walsh construction, the general contractor) remember the winter that was as cold as anyone remembers? The job was scheduled to be mostly shut down late november til earl march. not for some politiwhen aims, but because it's repo cold to pour concrete, inefficient, dangerous.... Also, remember when we had the super drought, the mississippi was almost closed to barge traffic because it was so low. Then we had the flooding last year.... Here it is high again.... All the barge traffic for the mississippi goes through the canal, the Army corp of Engineers will only allow them to shut it down for so many hours, then reopen for extended periods for barge traffic.... Not sure of the barge traffic under the blanchette bridge but there is a lot under the 270 canal.... The west bound lanes are expected to open in a couple weeks, east bound opens mid to late September and start implosion early October of the old bridge...