WisDOT, Iowa DOT break ground together on $140M Lansing Bridge Project

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The Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT) and the Iowa Department of Transportation last month mobilized construction crews to the Lansing Bridge Project, starting a $140 million project that will last through 2027. 

Iowa DOT is the leading agency to replace a 1,700-foot cantilever bridge connecting Iowa Highway 9 in Lansing, Iowa with Wisconsin Highway 82 in Crawford County over the Mississippi River. Department officials said the structure is referred to as the Black Hawk Bridge.

Plain-based contractor Kraemer North America has been hired as the primary contractor, according to WisDOT officials.

The total project cost is $140 million, iowa DOT officials said. Federal funding will cover 80 percent of construction costs, and the remainder will be split between Wisconsin and Iowa.

The project calls for construction of a wider bridge to replace the one that first opened in 1931. Contractor crews will expand the road from 21 to 40 feet, making a safer path for drivers who need to pull over. 

Crews will expand the channel from 650 feet to 750 feet to create more spaces for barges in the river below. The new bridge will be 180 feet above the normal water level, replacing the 160-foot-tall structure. 

New bridge foundations will be 150 feet below the ground, compared to 55 feet from before. The new bridge will be a steel through-truss type like the last one, officials explained. 

Construction of the new bridge started in fall of 2023 and will take place alongside the old bridge, which will remain in use as crews race to the finish through 2026. 

Officials said the new bridge will fully open in 2027 and the old bridge will be removed. It’s not clear yet how the bridge will be deconstructed, but Iowa transportation officials said the most economical way is with explosives. 

Wisconsin and Iowa’s transportation departments in 2003 started assessing the bridge for improvements, according to Iowa DOT officials. The first feasibility study took place in 2004, and then the first public meeting 13 years later. 

Transportation planners discussed replacing the bridge in June of 2021, according to the department.

A few hundred miles north, WisDOT and Minnesota Department of Transportation officials seek federal funding to help push the John A. Blatnik Bridge project between Superior and Duluth, Minn., off the ground.