Yes, good question and everyone has their opinions, here are a few of mine:

Start talking location and all of the NIMBY's come out along with the Environmentalists and some of their very wealthy contributors from others states. We also have Federal, State & some Local Agencies with ALL of the Rules and Regulations (RED TAPE).

The next question's coming are:
How much will it cost for this option vs. that option?
Where will the money come from to get it done?
What Type of Bridge Structure (Do we want a Signature/Artistic Bridge. An Artistically pleasing Structure can be designed as economically as a conventional concrete or steel beam structure)?
How high do we want to see Built to avoid what frequency of a Flood?

The current route choice would affect Chaska's Athletic Park, What I call the Chaska NIMBY (Not In My Ball Yard) crowd. Is there any way these people could be appeased into moving the Athletic Park to a new location and build a wonderful inviting New Stadium incorporating parts and pieces of the Old Stadium into a New Stadium/Park?

Currently there is NO Funding available or set aside for any New 41 Bridge plans within the next 20-years.

See Mn/DOT's website for the New Crossing Study for much more information:
http://www.projects.dot.state.mn.us/srf/041/index.html

We could also take the option of doing nothing and live with having this major river crossing closed every few years.

Another option would be to upgrade/reconstruct what we have now. We could rebuild the crossing we have by raising the roadbed to the height of the Chaska Flood-Dike all the way across the river. In taking this approach 41 would have to be shut down for an entire summer and add another bridge or two to allow more water through without backing the River up and causing more flooding upstream. This would still cost upwards of $10 million or more and not solve the problem of all the Truck & other High Speed Traffic through downtown Chaska.

If we really want to get this New Hwy 41 River Crossing done, we need to come together on a plan agreeable to most everyone and then lobby our Elected Representatives to provide funding to move ahead and build it.

Problem with the current funding programs is that the current system is broke. New Roads and Bridges along with Maintenance of our current system cost a lot of money and have left the budgets strained. Our current system of which we most all pay for through mainly fuel/transportation taxes. In the last few years since we had near $4.00/gallon gas, we have cut down our driving and began using using more fuel efficient and alternative fuel vehicles. This has dramatically cut into the revenue stream for funding our transportation system. Congress has begun debate on a number of ideas of which are widely varied. In the end however, we are ALL going to have to pay more to maintain what we have and build any new roads & bridges. The most likely change, although not immediate will be some type of mileage based User Fee to replace or supplement the Fuel/Gas Taxes. Living in the Suburban Metro area, like many Metro area's we will probably see the advent of Tolls and Congestion Pricing on more roadways similar to what Mn/DOT has done on I-394 and started last year on I-35W from Burnsville to downtown Minneapolis. The more you drive/use the heaviest traveled/congested routes at times of the heaviest congestion, the more you pay to use that route.

This won't all happen overnight, but 20-years from now we will have a whole different system and method of paying for our transportation needs and uses.