About 25 persons attended a public meeting hosted by the Iowa Department of Transportation Tuesday in Grand Junction. The topic of the meeting was a pair of bridge projects proposed for Highway 30 – a new overpass across the Union Pacific railroad tracks in Grand Junction, and a new structure over Beaver Creek east of Grand Junction.
According to Tony Gustafson, an engineer with the DOT, the turnout was more than usual for such projects. He said people were eager to see renderings of the proposed overpass, which has received an artist’s touch acknowledging the legacy of the Lincoln Highway. Other questions were about the detour route for thru traffic.
Gustafson explained that safety on the new overpass will be enhanced. The new overpass will be 45 feet wide; the existing overpass is 28 feet wide. The overpass will still be two lanes wide, but with shoulders. Additionally, the project calls for re-engineering the slopes on the north and south sides of the road on both ends of the overpass, eliminating the need for cable guardrails. The new overpass will have the same footprint; the gentle curve will not be straightened. Cost of the project is $6.7 million.
The existing bridge over Beaver Creek will be replaced by a three-cell box culvert with a price tag of $500,000.
Funding for the projects is about 80 percent federal dollars and 20 percent state money, Gustafson said. Both will be done in the same construction season for efficiency. Funding is in place for construction in 2018, but he said the project could be done earlier or later, depending on how it falls on the DOT’s prioritized list.
The preliminary work is being done now because of the need to purchase right-of-way for the slope work on the overpass. He said the DOT engineers want to have the project “on the shelf” ready for bid-letting on short notice should funding and scheduling allow. Gustafson it has long been the practice to have paving projects planned and ready to go on short notice, but the DOT has recently started doing the same with bridge projects.
Maps and renderings of the projects were shown at the public meeting. The four large renderings of the railroad overpass and the maps can be seen at the Lincoln Highway visitor center on Main St in Grand Junction.
