Work continues on bridge replacement near Hartington

HARTINGTON — Work is continuing on a bridge replacement project near Hartington.

Carla Schmidt, Cedar County’s highway superintendent, updated the board of commissioners on the project on March 12.

The projected time period for work on this project had been set for January-May 2024. However, in early December, Herbst Construction Inc. of rural Le Mars, Iowa, started tearing out the bridge that had crossed over the Bow Creek on 883rd Road about 1.25 miles east of Hartington.

Schmidt previously described the old crossing – a 100-foot-long pony truss bridge built in 1973 out of concrete and steel – as "structurally deficient."

The new crossing will be a 130-foot-long, 28-foot-wide concrete-slab bridge that will have no weight limit.

Schmidt said the project is on schedule to be completed sometime this spring, especially if Mother Nature cooperates with nice weather.

“They’re driving piling and building the bents (pillars) and abutments and so forth for the bridge," she said in a follow-up interview, later adding this project is “really the only ongoing one we have right now."

The commissioners approved a bid on June 13 of just over $1.1 million submitted by Herbst Construction for this project.

Cedar County has bundled its project together with one in Knox County through the Nebraska Department of Transportation’s County Bridge Match Program because the new crossings will be similar structures.

Cedar County is set to be reimbursed $250,000 of the cost of its bridge replacement project through the Nebraska DOT program.

Schmidt also updated the commissioners on two box culvert projects that were awarded to A&R Construction of Plainview in February 2023.

The box culverts are replacing two structurally deficient bridges and are part of the Nebraska DOT’s County Bridge Match Program, which will reimburse the county up to $200,000 for the two projects, which have been bundled together.

Schmidt said A&R Construction is “pretty much done" working on a $290,891.39 box culvert project that is situated southwest of Obert and a $397,605.74 box culvert project that is located west of Coleridge.

“They’ve got some seeding left and that's it," she said.

In unrelated roadwork news, listed under “New Business" on the commis sioners’ meeting agenda was an improvement project planned by the Nebraska DOT for the intersection of Highways 81 and 12, located about four miles east of Crofton.

County Clerk Jessica Schmit did not have many details on the project.

“I don’t know exactly what they're going to do," she said.

Commissioner Dick Donner described the junction of Highways 81 and 12 as a "busy intersection."

Schmit compared that intersection to where Highways 81 and 20 meet about three miles west of Randolph.

“It’s just as busy as 81-- 20," she said. "I don't know why they don’t make it a four-way (stop) like that."

Board Chairman Dave McGregor said the junction of Highways 81 and 12 has a history of “a lot of acci- dents," including fatal ones.

Motorists traveling north and south on Highway 81 do not have to stop at the intersection, while drivers going east and west on Highway 12 have stop signs there.

“That’d be awesome - whatever they do,” Donner said of the Nebraska DOT’s improvement plan for the intersection.

The project - described as an “asset preservation” one by the Nebraska DOT - is part of the state agency’s District Three five-year planning program for fiscal years 2025-29.

Nebraska DOT District Three Engineer Kevin Domogalla, who is based in Norfolk, confimied there is an improvement project planned for the intersection of Highways 81 and 12, but work is not scheduled to start on it this year.

“I don’t have a definite date right now,” he said. “It’s still in design right now.”