Historic Wyanet bridge finds new home

WYANET — The $6 million, multi-bridge Wyanet project should be completely finished by the end of May.

The multi-million dollar project started last year with the removal of an historic 1931 bridge on the southwest edge of Wyanet; the refurbishing of that bridge; and then relocating the bridge one mile east on the Township Road 271A.

On Thursday, Paul Schlindwein, assistant Bureau County highway engineer, said the historic bridge is now in place on the township road. Work is expected to begin May 1 on building the approaching roadways to the bridge. That work will include, in part, putting down gravel, pouring concrete for the approaches, and final asphalt work, as well as installing guardrails and seeding. The historic bridge looks great in its new setting, he said.

Township Road 271A is closed to through traffic.

As reported earlier in the Bureau County Republican, the Wyanet bridges project is the largest bridge project in Bureau County’s history, according to Bureau County Highway Engineer John Gross.

The project included not only removing, refurbishing and relocating the historic bridge but also the replacement of the historic bridge with a three-span steel plate girder bridge with a concrete deck. The project also included the removal of an existing township road bridge to make way for the new home for the historic bridge.

The replacement of the historic bridge at its original site has been needed for many years in order to better handle the heavy agriculture-related traffic, the Bureau Valley School District traffic, as well as general public traffic, Gross said. The Wyanet bridge site carries traffic over the Iowa Interstate Railroad and the Hennepin Canal. The new bridge and roadway approaches eliminate the previous dip in the road, which will help with visibility and safety factors, he said.

The Illinois Department of Transportation has served as lead agent on the project, with IDOT awarding the project to Civil Constructors with a low bid of $5,912,000.

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