Work On Mississippi River Bridge At Lansing Set To Begin

A bridge repair project will force the closure of the Iowa Highway 9 bridge over the Mississippi River at Lansing for about one week.

Weather permitting, work is scheduled to begin at 8 AM Monday.

The closure will create a nearly 60-mile round-trip detour for motorists to travel back-and-forth between Allamakee County, Iowa, and Crawford County, Wis. The nearest bridges crossing the Mississippi River link La Crescent, Minn., and La Crosse, Wis. or Marquette, Iowa, and Prairie du Chien, Wis.

Iowa Department of Transportation officials said the project involves removing and replacing several structural steel pieces on the nearly 90-year-old span, known as the Black Hawk Bridge. The more than $330,000 project is the most substantial in recent years, IDOT officials said.

The Black Hawk Bridge has been in use since 1931, but it may not be around much longer. IDOT officials have been studying the possibility of replacing the aging structure with a new bridge at Lansing in the near future, likely within the next 10 years.