"Well, we can't give the $72 million it would take to build a new bridge because the old one is unsafe. But we can spend $10 million to paint the old one and make it look prettier"The Interstate-74 bridge is undergoing a multimillion-dollar paint job.
A contractor for the Iowa DOT has begun work on a $10.1 million contract to deal with the corrosive effects of water and salt to the aging structure. Workers will remove old paint, wash the bridge and give selected parts a new coat of paint.
The work is expected to last through October. There will be frequent lane closures, but those are being limited to between 8 p.m. and 6 a.m.
“Their access is restricted to only close lanes at night,” said Doug Rick, a project manager for the Iowa Department of Transportation.
“We’re trying to avoid those peak daytime hours.”
He added that during special events, there also will be attempts to limit the lane closures.
The contract has been awarded to Tarpon Industrial Inc. of Tarpon, Fla.
Painting is done periodically to maintain the bridge, which local officials eventually want to replace. Water and salt corrode joints and other parts of the bridge. This project will entail removing old paint and replacing it.
The bridge is a major Quad-City crossing.
Last week, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was in the Quad-Cities to examine the bridge while meeting with officials to discuss its replacement. LaHood’s assessment was harsh. He called it “one of the worst bridges I’ve ever seen” of the nearly 300 he says are on a list of spans in need of replacement or major repair.
Transportation officials say the bridge is safe to drive on, but they say it is “functionally obsolete.” The span handles about 78,000 vehicles on an average day and was built for 48,000.
Local officials have been hopeful that construction of a new span could begin in fiscal year 2016, which actually begins the summer before. However, those plans are in doubt. Iowa’s transportation department’s draft 2012-17 construction plan has moved out the $63 million in construction funding that’s in the current program. That was done because Illinois had not put any construction funds in its own six-year long-range plan.
Illinois announced last Friday it had changed its plan and added $72 million — $22 million in fiscal year 2017 and $50 million in 2018. It says the money is for construction, and local officials hope that investment will convince Iowa to maintain its construction funding. Iowa’s transportation commission is scheduled to finish its plan at its meeting next month.
Rick said the painting project now being undertaken is expected to be the last for the span.
“What we’re painting now is going to get us through what we need this bridge for,” he said. The last major painting project was in 1997, Rick said.
$10 million painting project starting on I-74 bridge : Quad-City Times: Quad Cities, IA/IL
h/t Fark