(Radio Iowa) – A D-O-T spokesman says progress is being made on the repairs to the Mississippi River bridge at Lansing that was closed on February 25th after two piers shifted. The D-O-T’s Clayton Burke says good weather has allowed them to work on the problem piers. “We had two piers that we had to replace. Both of those piers had been reconstructed and are ready for the bridge to be reset on top of them,” he says. “And actually today (Tuesday), I just looked out the window we’ve got two out of the four bridge spans the bridge deck that has to be replaced. Those are now reset on top of those piers that have been reconstructed.” The other two spans still need to be put back in place.

“And then after that’s complete they have a bunch of touch up work to do so they’ll be final tightening of the bolts that hold the bridge together and making sure that all the anchor rods and different pieces of that bridge are put in exactly the right place,” Burke says. The final step is to have a structural engineer go over the bridge.

“Once that structural inspection is complete and that the expert has signed off that the bridge is safe to reopen we will proceed with reopening it,” he says. They hope to have the bridge re-opened by the end of the month. A new bridge is under construction but won’t be completed until the end of 2026. Burke says around 29-hundred people crossed the Lansing bridge each day before it closed.