Iowa DOT Project Manager Clayton Burke provides further insight into cause and remedy of issues forcing Black Hawk Bridge closure
by Julie Berg-Raymond
The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) closed the Black Hawk Bridge (Highway 82) at Lansing Sunday, February 25 because of safety concerns after hearing from the Allamakee County Sheriff’s Office of “suspected movement of the bridge,” according to Pete Hjelmstad, field services coordinator with the District 2 Office of the Iowa DOT.
The bridge is expected to remain closed for at least two months while the situation is further investigated and corrected. According to Clayton Burke, the Iowa DOT’s overseeing engineer on the new bridge construction project taking place next to the existing bridge, the DOT “is actively working on a van pool as well as a passenger ferry. We expect the ferry to be in operation for a couple months while the bridge is closed,” he said. Details of those transportation modes in an effort to assist area residents and businesses will be made available to the public once they have been finalized.
Thursday, February 29, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds issued a disaster proclamation for Allamakee County and Clayton County “in response to a sudden structural failure of a border bridge.” The proclamation is effective immediately and continues through March 30. The governor’s proclamation activates the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Emergency Repair (ER) Program which authorizes emergency relief funding to cover the costs of repair or reconstruction of federal-aid routes that have suffered severe damage as a result of sudden structural failure.
“An official cost estimate will not be available until the design of the repair is complete,” Burke said.
RECENT UPDATES
In an email interview over this past weekend, Burke provided the most recent updates to that point in what is a continually evolving story. Burke and other project engineers will address questions and concerns from the community at the Meehan Memorial Lansing Public Library Thursday, March 14, beginning at 5 p.m. This event is the fifth “bridge talk,” held the second Thursday of every month, at the library.
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