State Highway 122 bridge project won’t be done by end of month DOT says

MASON CITY — A bridge project on Mason City’s west side that officials hoped would be completed by the end of the month will not be done by then. Construction continues on the bridge in the eastbound lanes of State Highway 122 .

The Iowa Department of Transportation’s Pete Hjelmstad says while things looked positive for an opening before Halloween, it’s likely not going to happen.  “We were hoping we could get it open by the end of this week or early next week, it’s not going to happen. I know we’ve talked about this before where these contractors have projects all over the state, and if they are behind on one bridge, they can pull crews and go and try to catch up, and it’s kind of what’s happened out here.”

Hjelmstad says this spring’s heavy rain which resulted in flooding meant the contractor could not work on the project, causing the delay.   “Our contracts are set up on what’s called working days, and they have so many working days to get a project done. With the flooding, they don’t get charged working days when it’s impossible to do work on the project. So they’ve still got working days left.  Long story short, it’s going to be into November, maybe November 20th. It’s not that far away. Everybody has been looking forward to getting it open and I understand, but that’s the way it is.”

Hjelmstad dispels a rumor that’s going around — the westbound bridge will not be worked on next year.   “I will reiterate, this is good news, because I’m still getting questions about this — we are not, I repeat, we are not replacing the westbound bridge on 122 next year.  Hopefully you can take that away as good news. I was giving blood on Friday and a couple of people starting talking about how, because that’s right next to the bridge where I was giving blood, and there were some people in there saying ‘next year they are going to tear that bridge out and work on it’, and I said ‘that is absolutely not true’.”

Hjelmstad says there is a lane closure currently on the westbound bridge as the guard rail in the median has to be worked on as part of the project.