September 27, 2015: Mississippi River Overflow Bridge entering Sabula on US 52/IA 64.
The new Sabula-Savanna bridge over the Mississippi River got about three and a half months of an opening run. A nearby bridge on the Iowa side, for Mississippi River overflow, was closed at the end of February because of a “construction issue”. With the nearest crossing at Clinton, it’s going to feel like a long wait until construction on a new overflow bridge finishes around Memorial Day.
But there is help available. KWWL says an 88-year-old is offering free crossings on his pontoon boat. You can’t take your car, but you can get across in 20 minutes.
After finding a picture for this blog post, it struck me: Is this the last overhead truss bridge that remained on an active state-maintained highway? I’m referring to this specific design, I think it’s a Pratt truss, that was common for pre-Depression bridges all across Iowa. (IA 9 at Lansing, obviously, is a truss, but that’s a special case.) It would require some deep digging into the bridge database (the one I have is from 2012 and it’s a bear to open), but it’s certainly one of very few.