DAVENPORT, Iowa — After nearly two years of being out of operation, the Elm Street bridge will soon serve as a passage way in Davenport from Jersey Ridge Road to Eastern Avenue. Construction began a month ago on the bridge, and demolition is already 80 percent complete.
Richard Ashbacher has lived on the street near the bridge for 42 years, since 1979. He says when the bridge was open it was a popular street saying, “It’s quite a bit of traffic, but not terrible.” Besides there are benefits to the temporary dead end. Ashbacher saying, “It’s better with no traffic. Kids can play in the street, which they do.”
He detours to get around now, “You have to go around, Mound to Locust.” But Assistant Public Works Director Clay Merritt says the bridge will be open by the end of November this year. Merritt saying, “They’re prepping all the foundations for all the metal beams that are going in, so that will take some time.”
Some of those beams will go 85 feet into the ground to support the new bridge. Merritt saying, “It’s pretty significant and going to be time consuming. They have about 80 percent done with demolition so that should be done in the next couple of weeks and then on areas where they have completed demolition they're already starting to prep for those foundations.”” Time consuming, but still moving along on schedule.
The project has a $2.6 million-dollar sticker price. The money coming from outside sources, instead of the city budget. Merritt saying, “We were successful last year in acquiring about one million dollars from Department of Transportation bridge programming.”
The other $1.5 million dollars is coming from Canadian Pacific Railway. They paid the city of Davenport to take ownership of the bridge and its maintenance.
The bridge resides in the fifth ward of Davenport. Ward alderman Matt Dorhmann says he’s always gotten a lot of calls on the bridge since the beginning of his term. “It’s definitely one of the main items people reach out to me about.”
Alderman Dorhmann says he’s worked with city staff as well as residents in the area to make sure the bridge best suits their needs saying, “Make sure the bridge really fit in with the neighbors that were already there.” It’s a construction project once again connecting residents, to their neighbors on the other side.