The Mississippi River Bridge from Lansing into Wisconsin is shutting down for good today (Monday) so work can progress on the new bridge.
DOT engineer Clayton Burke says they plan is to drop the east and middle sections of the bridge with explosives. “We won’t have the explosive implosion right away, the contractor will start by removing pieces of the bridge deck and various steel beams, preparing the bridge for the explosive implosion,” he says. Burke says they expect the implosion sometime in mid-December. He says they will have to manually take the Iowa portion of the bridge down it’s over a roadway and a railroad, and next to houses.
The Lansing bridge was closed temporarily a few of times due to movement that is believed to be linked to work on the nearby new bridge. Burke says they believe they can implode the two sections of the old bridge without any impact to the new one. “We do have a pier in the middle of the river that is a strong reinforced concrete pier,” he says. “And we don’t have any concerns of the implosion damaging that pier in any way.” Demolition of the old bridge should be completed by spring of 2026.
Burke says there will be a car ferry available for people who need to cross the bridge for work, but it will not be open until November. Burke says the existing bridge carries about 2,200 vehicles per day on average throughout the year. The new bridge is on schedule to open in the spring of 2027.