Three years after flooding washed away the Iowa River bridge at Oakville, the federal government will provide funding for a new bridge.  Susan Coffey of the Southeast Iowa Regional Planning Commission is the project’s administrator.  She says the new bridge will be a vital asset to the area, especially for employees of Tri-Oak Foods.  Senator Tom Harkin approved the $65,000 grant, which will come from the federal Innovative Bridge Research and Deployment Program.  The original bridge, nearly 60 years old, fell victim to flooding in 2008.

The new bridge, Coffey says, will be constructed to current safety standards, and high enough to sustain considerable amounts of flooding.  Work on the bridge is scheduled to begin by this fall.