(Radio Iowa) – The Woodbury County engineer says a bridge near Bronson that was destroyed by a runaway grass fire last Saturday may take a year to replace. Engineer Laura Sievers says the wood underpinnings of the bridge were badly burned and the steel warped. The county already has 36 bridges on the list to be repaired, but she says told the county supervisors they should consider putting it at the top of the list.
“Pretty vital to being used to get traffic in and out of Bronson and for agricultural purposes, because this is in an area where you don’t have a lot of straight roads. I feel like some of those things create a priority for this bridge,” she says. Sievers says they should consider replacement instead of trying to repair the burned portions.
“It’s probably going to cost, you know, a third to half of a new bridge to fix it. So if it’s going to give you half the life, why don’t we go through all the regulatories with replacement versus a repair?,” she says. Sievers says it would cost around 375-thousand dollars to repair the 39 by 24 bridge, and she suggests the increase the size of the new bridge to 50 by 30 feet. If the county supervisors approved the recommendation to replace the bridge, Sievers says it could be replace sometime in the 2027 construction season.
At least two homes were also destroyed by the fire.
