With Missouri River flood waters slowly receding, Iowa Department of Transportation officials must now work out a plan to deal with the damage done to many miles of highways and Interstates 29 and 680. D-O-T spokeswoman Dena Gray-Fisher says some areas where the murky water is pooled will have to be drained manually. “It’s also going to take a lot of work just to drain out the area so we can get in there and do something,” Gray-Fisher says. Once the water is gone, they can start the process of inspecting the area to see how much of the road is left and what happened to the soil under the roadways.

“If there’s actually a slab of pavement left there and if the road looks semi-sound, then we’ll go in there with some ground-penetrating ultrasound devices that actually test the road,” Gray-Fisher says. “They look for voids underneath the pavement. They also look for how stable is that soil because if you’re going to put heavy trucks on that, you want to make sure it can sustain that kind of weight.” For months, there have been huge sandbag berms placed along some sections of roads, including Highway 30 leading from Missouri Valley, Iowa, to Blair, Nebraska. Gray-Fisher says those sandbags will be removed.

She says, “The sand bags that are the large ones that we put along the interstate and on U-S Highway 30, the bags will be cut, the sand released and we will go in there with end loaders and haul that sand away.” As far as a time table for when some of these roads will reopen, Gray-Fisher says it won’t be long before they can actually see what is under that water. She says, “Between the next ten days to a couple of weeks, we are starting to see the roads emerge and we can start to see a little bit better what the picture is.”

Gray-Fisher says a timetable for repair and reconstruction can’t be developed until inspections are complete. Water that has receded over Interstate 680 between Omaha and Crescent, showed the power of the Missouri River to destroy infrastructure. The raging river tore through the interstate, and left in its wake a crumpled, massive jigsaw puzzle of concrete and asphalt, which officials say may not be fixed until November 2012, at the earliest. That’s because it’s not just the road that’s gone. The river churned underneath the road bed, causing it to collapse. Another area of concern, is I-29 south of Glenwood, which has been underwater more than two months.

(Radio Iowa/Omaha World-Herald)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – MidAmerican Energy has announced it has completed the installation of 13 wind turbines near Pomeroy as part of the company’s plan to expand  wind energy production across Iowa. In a news release issued Wednesday, MidAmerican says the turbines are the first of 258 the company is erecting at three wind energy projects in Iowa this year.

The turbines, which are supplied by Siemens Energy Inc., will add more than 590 megawatts to MidAmerican’s energy generation portfolio. That’s enough to power about 190,000 homes. The Pomeroy project is in Pocahontas and Calhoun counties. The remaining turbines will be erected in Cass, Adams, Adair and Marshall counties by the end of the year.

LOGAN, Iowa (AP) — A detective with the Omaha, Neb., police department has pleaded guilty to a drunken driving charge in Iowa. Online court records show 37-year-old Wendy Redding pleaded guilty on Monday in Harrison County District Court to first-offense OWI. She was arrested on July 3rd.

Redding was sentenced to 30 days in jail with 28 days suspended, placed on probation for a year and fined $625. Court records show as an alternative, Redding can serve two days in jail and attend an impaired driver’s course. But if she completes a weekend OWI diversion program, she won’t have to serve any jail time or take the course.

Omaha police spokeswoman Lt. Darci Tierney told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Redding is on paid administrative leave.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Aug. 31, 2011 – Road construction work on Iowa 192/South Expressway Street just north of Interstate 29/80 at exit 3 near Lake Manawa will cause intermittent lane closures in both directions beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6th, weather permitting, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Council Bluffs construction office.
Flaggers will be used to control traffic during the closure. The roadway will return to normal traffic patterns when workers are not present. Motorists are asked to consider using an  alternate route during this construction project.  This project is expected to be completed by Jan. 9, 2012.

The chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party has publicly rebuked a liberal activist group that has gained media attention by confronting politicians of both parties. Martha Scarpellino, a member of the Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, described her group this way after they pestered presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the Iowa State Fair: “I’m with these guys: the loud, noisy question-askers.” The group also heckled the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee spoke at the Fair.

This past week Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement sent out a press release with details of how the group had “confronted” Republican Senator Chuck Grassley at a town-hall meeting in Carroll “for over an hour” and “demanded” that the senator not cut Social Security. A columnist for the newspaper in Carroll blasted the group’s “ambush tactics” during and after the event. Sue Dvorsky, chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Party, issued a statement, calling the actions of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement members “unproductive and embarrassing.” She accused the group of being “less focused on results and more focused on creating chaos” that gets written about by the media.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement issued a statement in response, saying Dvorsky’s attack was “baseless” but it also quoted another C-C-I member as saying “sitting back quietly while career politicians debate cuts to our livelihood would be unacceptable.”

(O. Kay Henderson/Radio Iowa)

The Cass County Board of Supervisors have awarded contracts for two bridge and two road repair projects within the county. Cass County Engineer Charles Marker said the bids were received during a state letting on August 16^th. One of the bridges, number 306, is located on Olive Street (or 620^th), about two-miles south of Atlantic. The low bid of $725,996 was received from Murphy Heavy Contracting Corporation, out of Anita. The bid was slightly below the engineer’s estimate.

The other bridge, number 61, crosses Seven Mile Creek on Victoria Road, or south of Highway 92. There were also seven bids received, the lowest was from A-M Cohron, of Atlantic, in the amount of $644, 089, was also below the engineer’s estimate. The Supervisor’s approved both contracts, which will be forwarded back to the State for disposition. The Board also approved local letting Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) and Portland Cement Concrete (PCC) road maintenance or repair projects within the County.

Henningsen Construction of Atlantic was the lone bidder for the HMA patching project. Their bid amounted to $155,555. Marker says the project includes: 740^th Street, from Anita, west of the school, on north; Glendale Road (or, County G-27) from near Canby to Highway 148 south of Anita, and County Road G-43/Fletcher Chapel Road between Highway 71 and County Road N-28.

And, there were three bids for the PCC repair project. Marker says that includes: Atlantic Airport Road (G-30), west from the airport to the Pottawattamie County line; from the Airport south, on M-56 for a few miles. Gus Construction Company’s bid of $63,828 was the lowest of the three received. The Supervisors awarded the contract to the company, which is located in Casey.

And, the Supervisor’s approved the purchase of a John Deere excavator from Murphy Tractor, in the amount of $175,690. The machine will be used to clear away ditch debris.

The Audubon County Sheriff’s Department reports two, minor injury accidents occurred Tuesday within the county. The first happened at around 4:30-p.m., at the intersection of Highways 71 and 44, in Hamlin. Officials say 58-year old Stephen Robert Miller, of Audubon, who was driving a 2011 Chevy, turned in front of a 2006 GMC, driven by 46-year old Norma Jean Weitzel, of Sac City, as Weitzel was traveling south on Highway 71, and Miller was traveling east on 44.

After the vehicles collided, Weitzel was transported to the Audubon County Memorial Hospital, for treatment of minor injuries. Damage from the crash, which remains under investigation, amounted to $8,000.

The second accident happened on Highway 44, just east of Hamlin, at around 6-p.m, Tuesday. Officials say 20-year old Tiffany Marie Ward, of Audubon, was traveling east when she fell asleep at the wheel. When her 1994 Oldsmobile e ran off onto the shoulder of the road, Ward overcorrected, sending the car sideways into the south ditch, where it hit a field drive. The impact knocked-off the back tire. Her vehicle continued over the field drive before coming to rest on its wheels.

Ward was also transported to the Audubon County Hospital and treated for minor injuries. She was later cited for Failure to Maintain Control. Damage from the crash amounted to $2,000.

Two Atlantic residents were arrested Tuesday on theft charges. 56-year old Sara Gustafson was arrested by Atlantic Police, on warrants for 1^st Degree Theft and Forgery. And, 18-year old Carey Klindt, of Atlantic, was arrested on a charge of shoplifting.

Both women were brought to the Cass County Jail and held pending a court appearance.

w/ Ric Hanson

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