first on decorahnews.com: County will use a prefab bridge to replace a bridge on County A-14

This bridge in Buchanan County was made with precast concrete bridge sections

A company headquartered in Wahoo, Nebraska might be the key to Winneshiek County saving money on replaced defective bridges.

That's the hope of county supervisors, who voted Monday to recommend using commercially produced precast concrete bridge sections from the company because of the lower cost of such bridges.

County Engineer Lee Bjerke says while using a concrete culvert to replace Bridge #138 would be the best option, the Oden prefab sections are a "viable" option--and especially attractive since they would cost around half what the concrete culvert would cost.  That's especially important because the Bridge #138 replacement will be paid with local property tax receipts instead of state road funds.

The Iowa DOT will take bids this year on the replacement of nearby Bridge #138A and Bjerke is hoping the two projects can be done in the 2017 fiscal year.