first on decorahnews.com: City officials look for ways to lessen cost of $100,000 Trout Run Trail Bridge detour

When the Trout Run Trail Bridge is built over Highway 9 next year, traffic will have to be detoured for around four weeks.

Present plans call for the city to extend Industrial Lane so it connects with Highway 52 and can be used as a detour.  But City Engineer Lindsay Erdman says the cost of grading, paving and lighting Industrial Lane and the Short Street extension could cost around $100,000.

Needless to say, members of the city's Street Committee are not excited about the prospect of spending that much money on a temporary detour--even if the State DOT would pay 80 percent of the cost.  Street Committee chair Gary Rustad said the $40,000 to $60,000 in estimated paving costs would be "throwing away money."

Committee members are looking for other ways to create a detour, such as using less asphalt for paving or maybe even just using gravel.  Erdman says it's unlikely the state DOT would agree to a gravel road detour.  However, he promised he will continue to talk with state officials.

In the meantime, Street Committee members are raising the prospect of having to use Trout Run Trail money to pay for the costs of the detour.  The state DOT will open bids on the bridge project in October, so city officials won't have to wait too long to get an exact cost of the bridge--and of the detour.