Highway 92 bridge to be replaced next year

    The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) held an informational meeting Tuesday about the proposed replacement of the Crooked Creek Bridge on Highway 92 just east of West Chester. Iowa DOT engineers Pete Tollenaere and Chuck Belgarde answered questions about the project on the second floor of the library Tuesday evening. They said that the bridge replacement is scheduled for the spring of 2011 and that it would take roughly five months to complete.

    The DOT engineers said that while the bridge is out, traffic on Highway 92 will be redirected north onto W38 and G26, which are paved county roads. The DOT will assume responsibility for maintaining W38 and G26 during the bridge?s construction. The DOT will plow W38 and G26 if the project runs long and cannot be completed by the fall of 2011. It will also make any necessary repairs to those roads that result from a greater traffic load. Washington County Engineer David Patterson previously remarked that the traffic on G26 would quadruple if the bridge at Crooked Creek were closed.

    Tollenaere explained that the DOT selected the Crooked Creek Bridge on Highway 92 to replace because of its age and its width. The bridge is currently 28 feet wide, which leaves just a two-foot shoulder on either side of the road. The proposed width of the new bridge is 16 feet wider at 44 feet, leaving a 10-foot shoulder on either side. 

    ?This particular bridge is narrow and light,? said Tollenaere. ?When I say it?s light, I mean that it is able to carry legal loads but it does have structural limitations to it.?

For more, see our April 28 print edition.