The IA 9/WI 82 Black Hawk Bridge across the Mississippi River at Lansing reopened Monday after being closed since May 17. The Iowa DOT said in its press release that another long-term closure is expected this summer and the water taxi service that was restarted for the just-ended unexpected closure will continue.
I have questions about this sequence of sentences from the Des Moines Register’s coverage:
The Black Hawk Bridge reopened on the morning of June 9. The bridge is the only way to cross the river in the nearly 60-mile stretch between La Crosse and Prairie du Chien, according to the Milwaukee Journal.
Residents on both sides of the river use the bridge for commuting between the two states.
The bridge is the only connection in a 60-mile stretch. The nearest bridges connect La Crosse, Wisconsin, and La Crescent, Minnesota, about 35 miles to the north or Marquette, Iowa, and Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, about 30 miles to the south.
As a journalist, “attribute early, attribute often” is important, but the fact that the Black Hawk Bridge is the only crossing in a 60-mile stretch of the Mississippi River is just that, a verifiable fact. Secondly, why is it being restated in the same way two sentences later?