County S Closed
This accident in late 2014 caused damage to a bridge on County S in Crawford County.
Stretch of County S closed
By Ted Pennekamp
Effective at noon on Monday, May 2, there will be a road closure on County Highway S in the towns of Seneca and Haney because of a bridge replacement and reconstruction project. This bridge replacement and re-construction project will take approximately 120 working days. The bridge was damaged from an accident in late 2014. The deck was structurally damaged and traffic has been restricted to one lane since the accident. The project includes a new bridge structure, new approaches and realignment of County S. The highway reconstruction project will be 2,000 feet in length with improvements to the vertical and horizontal alignment of County S along with the new bridge in this area. The North Halls Branch Road intersection will also be reconstructed to make safety improvements on the intersection.
The County S Bridge project cost $46,930 for design and is expected to cost $430,000 for construction minus the $182,082 from the insurance claim from the accident. The total cost therefore is expected to be $294,848.
The County S Bridge is the second priority bridge project for Crawford County. Last summer the top priority bridge, a 20-ton bridge on County C, was removed and replaced with a new bridge because the old bridge had deteriorated beyond repair.
Other priority bridge projects include the bridge on County B in the town of Utica over Conway Valley Creek and the bridge on County C in the village of Soldiers Grove over Johnson Creek.
The total estimated cost of the four bridge projects is $727,468.
Several more bridges will need to be reconstructed in the coming years. There are 17 deficient bridges in need of replacement. That number is expected to increase to 22 bridges by 2017. This does not include the 20-plus small bridges under 20 feet in length throughout the county that are in need of replacement.
