Federal grant sought for McKain’s River Bridge

Washington County is hoping this will be the year they get the money to replace the McKain's River Bridge.

Replacing the bridge on Dogwood Avenue over the Skunk River, north of Lake Darling State Park, has been on the county's radar for years.

'This bridge has been on the five-year plan ever since I started with the county as an assistant,” County Engineer Jacob Thorius told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday. 'It's a funding issue. We could fund that, but it means we don't do any other projects for probably five years. That's just not feasible.”

He estimated that the cost of replacing the bridge is about $6.5 million.

Thorius said that the county has the opportunity to join seven other Iowa counties needing bridge replacements to apply for a federal BUILD Grant.

'We're looking for funds to cover probably 75 percent of that cost,” he said. 'It would make it a little more feasible to move that project forward. This is a project we've been working on with the Iowa County Engineers Association.

'They have reviewed bridges all across the state and have selected eight bridges that they feel are the best candidates to submit for this to help improve economic conditions across the state in various counties.”

The eight counties are seeking a $25 million grant to help pay for all of the bridge projects.

With so much at stake, the counties are seeking outside help to write the grant.

'Because of the competitiveness of this grant, we have decided we need to hire a consultant to help write that grant and make sure we put forth the best effort to do that,” Thorius said. 'That process is estimated to take about 10 weeks.”

The eight counties would split the $108,000 cost, coming to about $13,000 per county.

'There's no guarantee,” Thorius said. 'We'll have to spend some money to hopefully get a much greater return on it. If we're successful, it's well worth that cost.”

The Board of Supervisors agreed and unanimously approved entering into an agreement with the other counties to have a consultant write the grant.