DES MOINES, Iowa — The Des Moines City Council unanimously approved plans to rebuild and revitalize three bridges Monday night.
The city will replace the SW 9th Street bridge over the Racoon River and 2nd Avenue bridge over Birdland Drive. It will also repair the 2nd Avenue bridge over the Des Moines River.
Inspections had determined the three bridges were "structurally deficient"—as are more than 1,000 bridges across the state. Iowa leads the country with the highest number of structurally deficient bridges.
City engineer Steven Naber said just because a bridge is considered to be in poor condition doesn't mean drivers need to be worried.
"Structurally deficient does not mean that the bridge is unsafe, or even load posted, it means that one or more of the elements are in a condition such that significant work is needed," Naber said.
He said these bridges were built in the mid-1930s and were widened in the 1980s. The the city is responsible for maintaining 52 roadway bridges, which they inspect at least every two years.
With those inspections, the city not only analyzes the condition of those bridges, but also looks at what type of work is needed to to improve them and maintain them for safe travel.
"The 2nd Avenue bridge over Birdland Drive, based on the inspections, is found to have a structural slab that has cracks in it, as well as, we found some exposed rebar, and corrosion," Nebar said. "Based on a lifecycle analysis we perform, it's determined that the full bridge replacement is the warranted remedy."
Some community members voiced concerns over these projects only having one bidder.
"Every single person here except for India has at least $1,000 donated to them by a community developer," one community member said. "And I'm wondering if that's influencing why we aren't getting more of a variety of bids on different projects."
Naber said the the lack of bidders is because river bridge work is a niche job.
"We only do have a handful of bridge contractors, contractors that are experienced to, that do this type of work," he said. "So we didn't anticipate that we received a number of bids, we were hoping for for more than one."
Naber expects these projects to begin this spring. He said the SW 9th Street bridge will be completed in Spring 2023, while construction on the 2nd Avenue bridges will wrap up in Fall 2023.
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