The final design for the replacement of the Black Hawk Bridge over the Mississippi River at Lansing … looks a lot like the old bridge, except as a unified piece. The “Blue Alternative” is slightly upstream of the present bridge, and roadway connections between old and new will require closing everything for three months.
The input meeting was last month, and I didn’t get a post in. It’s a continuation of the process I noted four years ago. There’s an online “self-guided tour” of the project. A line from the extremely long environmental assessment says, “The new river crossing would include a solid, hard surface bridge deck and a shoulder that could accommodate pedestrian/bicycle use.”
Construction of the $80.8 million bridge is scheduled for fiscal 2024, so starting in the second half of 2023. By the time of its completion, the Centennial Bridge in Davenport (1940) will be Iowa’s oldest bridge on the Mississippi River carrying a highway.