July 5, 2013: Wagon Wheel Bridge across the Des Moines River in Boone County, upstream from the Kate Shelley High Bridges.
The Boone County supervisors returned $2 million in funding to replace a bridge that’s spanned the Des Moines River for more than a century.
According to the Ames Tribune, a bond issue for more money to build a replacement bridge was soundly rejected, leaving the state money unusable. That freezes any work in the area.
The bridge’s closure in 2010 cut out the river crossing between E41 and E26 and also makes the road that goes under the west side of the Kate Shelley High Bridges to get to this bridge a long dead end. In addition, the road behind the camera in the photo is supposed to be an alternate west-bank routing for the Dragoon Trail, but has been abandoned for a decade.