A new type of bridge will be constructed in Washington County. At the Washington County Board of Supervisors meeting, County Engineer Jacob Thorius explained that a bid for bridge work that had previously been rejected should be reconsidered. He said that the project is a new type of construction, “The beams that we’re using and the type of cement we’re using is new. It’s been studied in the lab and shows to work quite well, and there’s no concern in terms of anything with that, but we need to get in the real world stuff to make sure we’re not missing anything on the constructability side of stuff. So there’s research involved with this project. And the Iowa Highway Research Board, which I served on for the last three years as a member and the three years before that as an alternate, does research projects all across the state to try to improve our roads system.”

Since the bridge is a new style, the Iowa Highway Research Board will help fund about $79,000 of the project. The county would then pay the remaining $540,968.18. The bridge will replace an existing one on Birch Avenue, south of Highway 22 in the northwest corner of the county.