Marquette-Joliet Bridge at Prairie du Chien closes, reopens

The Marquette-Joliet Bridge on Highway 18 near Prairie du Chien was closed for several hours Sunday afternoon, but reopened around 4:30 p.m.

A passer-by had reported to police seeing something fall off the bridge.  Crews inspected the bridge to determine if it had been damaged.  They discovered a ten foot wide section of concrete had fallen off the bridge.  But despite that, inspectors felt there were no safety concerns, so they gave approval to reopen the bridge around 4:30 p.m. Sunday.  .

Shortly after it was built, the bridge was closed after cracks were found in some of its supports.  It took over a year to make the repairs, with traffic forced to detour to Lansing or Dubuque to the next nearest bridges.