A bridge replacement project along Highway 92 in Cass County received a financial boost this week. The office of Senator Tom Harkin has announced the Iowa Department of Transportation will receive a $400,000 Highways for LIFE pilot program grant from the US Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration, to replace a bridge on Highway 92, one-mile west of Highway 148, near Massena.

Conceptual drawing of the new Highway 92 bridge near Massena. (Courtesy IA DOT)

The bridge will be constructed using prefabricated superstructure and substructure elements and will be the first bridge in Iowa to be installed using the lateral bridge slide method. When construction begins, traffic will be detoured using Highway 148, Oxford Road and through Cumberland, using 690th Street.

The Highways for Life program is intended to advance longer-lasting highways using innovative technologies and practices to accomplish the fast construction of efficient and safe highways and bridges. The innovative technologies and practices encouraged through the Highways for LIFE pilot program will improve construction time and help ensure that the new bridge will provide drivers along Highway 92 with a safe crossing for many decades. The replacement structure will be a single span 120’ x 44’ bridge with precast abutment footings, precast wingwalls and a precast superstructure fabricated adjacent to the existing bridge and moved into position by lateral slide. 

Harkin says he’s pleased that the Federal Highway Administration has made the project possible, and he looks forward to seeing the results.

Conceptual video of the bridge construction process/function:63825279