The Iowa DOT says the new Mississippi River bridge at Lansing is ahead of schedule and will open sometime in November, well ahead of the original projected opening in the spring of next year.
DOT engineer Clayton Burke says everyone has worked well together, including the construction crews who have worked ten-hour days, seven days a week. “I just I can’t believe the sacrifices people are willing to make to be out here away from their families working on the bridge to deliver this bridge as fast as we possibly can for the local communities and all of our users,” he says.
Burke says they’ve also been blessed with some great working conditions. “We didn’t have too many rain days. The river stayed nice and level at an elevation that we could work with. And we didn’t have weather problems. So that was another big factor that we could check off our list,” Burke says.
The old bridge was used until it had to be closed permanently in late 2025 as construction on the new bridge had caused it to move. The DOT set up a ferry service for the thousands of commuters who had used the bridge every day. Burke says there is some more work on the new bridge deck to improve its grip for vehicles and help with flow of rain off of it. And there is work still to do on the bridge approaches.
“Between now and November, we are going to finish the roadway work on both the Iowa and Wisconsin side,” Burke says. “We are already about quarter of the way done with the barrier rail on the bridge. So we’ll finish that barrier rail or some people call it a safety railing that protects vehicles from going off the side of the bridge.”
Burke says they will know an exact date for opening the new bridge as they progress with the finishing work. Worked started on the new bridge over the Mississippi at Lansing in late 2023. The old bridge was demolished in December 2025.
(By Darin Svenson, KDEC, Decorah)