Clear Lake council accepts funding from IDOT for bridge replacement project

CLEAR LAKE — The Clear Lake City Council this week approved accepting an offer from the Iowa Department of Transportation for funding to replace a bridge on 275th Street over Willow Creek on the northern edge of the community’s corporate city limits.

The county owns the bridge but is not eligible for funding under the Iowa DOT’s “City Bridge Funding Program”, but the city was eligible, and a so-called “border bridge” project also met eligibility requirements.

City Engineer Matt Steding says the bridge was eligible for up to $1.5 million in federal funding because of its poor condition.  “An eligible bridge must have a poor rating, which ours currently does in that location. During the month of November each year, the local systems bureau selects bridges from a proposed city bridge candidate list based on ranking and available funding. We have luckily met that list this year. Estimated construction cost for this project of this bridge and size is roughly $1.325 million, including right-of-way costs, and we’re lucky enough to be included on the list, which brings us to accepting this offer here tonight.”

Steding says there were a couple of different options the city could have explored to help fund the project, but this was the best choice.  “There are really two forms of funding that we can go with in this specific project. One source is state funding which is up to $500,000, and the other source is federal, which brings it up to $1.5 million. Given the current construction costs and the environment right now, this project will definitely warrant the need to go with the federal funding route.”

The council unanimously approved accepting the funding from the DOT.