Clark County Highway Department Celebrating Replacement of Old Blue Bridge West of Greenwood

Friday, November 14th, 2025 -- 12:00 PM

The Clark County Highway Department will be celebrating the completion of the new bridge just west of Greenwood with a ribbon cutting ceremony on November 18th.

The new bridge replaces the old blue bridge that was torn down earlier this year. I spoke with Brian Duell, with the Clark County Highway Department, and he discussed the project in more detail.

Listen to the interview with Brian here!

Once again, that ribbon cutting is being held at 1pm on Tuesday, November 18th and all are welcome to attend.

(AI assisted transcription by Otter.ai)

Brian: "So, the old bridge was actually a two span overhead truss structure. It was 243 feet long. And that bridge was constructed in 1938 and then it did have some rehabilitation work in 1988 so going back to, you know, it was a 1938 structure."

"Bridge was required to be inspected; each year it was classified as a fracture critical structure in a federal bridge program, so each year it had to be inspected and it was definitely in deteriorating condition."

"The main deficiency it had some rusted gusset plate members in there, which, essentially, kind of held up the bridge. So, that was a concern. One going back to, you know, the around the 2016 timeframe."

"The weight had to be reduced in 2020; we looked at it is, is when it really had to be reduced in there. The discussions on replacement came in in 2018 is when the first discussions kind of came came about. In October of '19 is when I submitted the first grant application to have that replaced."

Riley: "When did you get the word that the bridge would be replaced?"

Brian: "It was about in June of 2020 is when the paperwork came through, the approval paperwork and stuff came through June of 2020."

Riley: "What were some of the obstacles you ran into when replacing the bridge?"

Brian: "It was definitely a unique structure, a unique location and everything. So, it kind of, as we went, there was just, I'm gonna say, kind of one, one hurdle after another that we went through."

"The bridge was determined by the State Historic Preservation Office to be deemed a historic structure. So, once they consider it historic, that kind of hits the start button."

"And there is a whole process, you know, federal, state process, that you have to go through in order to remove that bridge. So, we started that process, which kind of hit the brakes on the whole design moving forward until we got, we got over the historic process on that."

Riley: "What were some of the other obstacles you ran into? And what was the cost of the project?"

Brian: "The Old Bridge, again, you know, the two span, 243 feet long and the new bridge design came back as a three span and just a little bit longer, 315 long. So, going into that disturbing, more area along that river, it kind of made the requirement as far as some of the environmental issues we had to deal with."

"One of the things is, you know, they do a survey of the site, and, you know, they determine, you know, there's, there's fish habitats and spawning that we had to, had to work around in stream."

"Restriction dates in the spring, March to June, so you couldn't be in the stream. So, that, construction wise, had to be really looked at and planned out accordingly. They did find an endangered turtle that was actually on site."

"So, there was an endangered turtle that they did find on site. And sometimes you find the habitat for it, and you have to meet one criteria once they actually, you know, find the species there, it raises the requirements, you know, moving forward on that."

"So, the turtles and the fish were something that had to be worked around. There is very shallow granite bedrock at the crossing site. So, that required a special construction method."

"It was called drilled shaft to be constructed. And that is unique, probably just maybe a few of them in the state are done each year. And so that was another obstacle planning that that had to be worked around for the funding."

"So, the engineer, the engineering, the actual design of the bridge structure itself has a process that goes along with it. And, you know, the geotechnical research that had to be done, you know, with the bedrock and that the historic process, we had to purchase some additional right away."

That cost of doing all that was about $550,000, so that's essentially everything that needs to be done prior to a bridge like that going out to bid for a contractor to actually do the physical work of replacing and building it."

"The construction cost then was about 3.8 million. So, the bridge itself was about 3.8 million. 80% of that funding was acquired through the state and federal bridge replacement program through that original grant that I submitted back in '19.

The additional recreational lane that was added was not eligible to be funded through the transportation funding. Portion of it, forestry and Parks was able to get a grant that paid 100% funding for the addition of that recreational lane that went on there. That additional lane was about $950,000 to add that on there."

"Once all that funding was in place, and then the projects moving forward. I worked with the Ho Chunk nation, which they sponsored a grant to the Bureau of Indian Affairs bridge program, and they awarded us $1.4 million."

"Essentially, everything that the county paid out of pocket, the county cost is going to be reimbursed, you know, through the Bureau of Indian Affairs funding."

Riley: "Can you talk about the ribbon cutting on the 18th?"

Brian: "So, the bridge is definitely on schedule. It's actually even even slightly a couple days ahead of schedule. But the cutting is going to be Tuesday, November 18, at 1pm at the bridge site, and it's actually going to be on the east side of the bridge."

"So, anybody you know wishing to attend that, we just asked them to park on the east side of the structure. The structure will be closed up until that point. So, on the east side there, city Greenwood streets there, they'll be able to get to the ribbon cutting ceremony at 1pm."

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.