Future remains unclear for Fontanelle wooden bridge

The future remains unclear for the old wooden bridge that carries 3rd Street over the old railroad bed in the northern part of Fontanelle.

The city council heard an update from Jon Conzetti of Calhoun-Burns Associates, Inc. on the bridge during their Tuesday, Sept. 10 meeting.

On the table is grant funding from the Iowa DOT to remove and replace the bridge, but no decisions have been made on the bridge’s future.

City Clerk Mary Dodson said the reason engineers came was to update the council on the status of the bridge because there are so many new council members from the time it was last discussed.

The bridge is required to be inspected every two years. The next inspection will be in 2025. The most recent inspection showed the bridge is in poor condition and has an expected remaining life of four years. During his presentation, Conzeti talked about various legal and liability aspects pertaining to the bridge and various financial scenarios if the council were to move forward in one way or another.

“Everyone needs to know the ins and outs of the grant and what it will take to move forward,” Dodson told the newspaper. “They took no action because they’re in the middle of absorbing what they heard. Some of them might have differing opinions. They all need to figure out where the council is on it and they’ll move forward from there.”

Dodson said the bridge will be on the agenda again in October.