The hole in the Great River Road isn’t getting any better.
The Cascade Bridge on the south side of Burlington, closed for a decade now, sits and waits for the city to put it out of its misery. They found a sinkhole earlier this month.
A Burlington Hawk Eye story earlier this month pegs the cost of repair at $7 million and replacement at $3 million, the latter a much lower number than quoted in 2018. If those numbers are correct, the clearest answer in my opinion is to tear the 1896 bridge down and build a new one.
The Hawk Eye now reports the Burlington city council is considering a utility franchise fee — replacing a local-option sales tax — to pay for the bridge. The last attempt to set a franchise fee was overwhelmingly rejected by voters, the earlier Hawk Eye story said.