T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY Traffic moves along the Center Street Viaduct on Wednesday afternoon. During Monday night’s meeting, the Marshalltown City Council authorized spending up to $10,000 to temporarily fix the finger joints protruding from the bridge while providing more time to apply for grant funding and work toward a long-term solution.

During Monday night’s regular biweekly meeting, the Marshalltown City Council moved forward with a plan to authorize up to $10,000 for temporary improvements to the Center Street Viaduct in hopes of securing grant funding for long-term upgrades to the structure.

Public Works Director Heather Thomas again came before the council and discussed several potential courses of action the city could pursue, but funding has been a consistent hurdle as construction costs and bids continue to rise. The “finger joints” that run across the bridge have been particularly concerning from Thomas’s perspective.

“Because we have that corroded roller bearing underneath, right now we are going in and out horizontally, but we also have some vertical movement. And that’s what’s causing that kind of abrupt hit of a tire that’s causing that bump,” she said.

The fact that some of the fingers are missing is also causing a larger dip, Thomas added. She then presented her recommendation that city staff take out the current finger joints on the high side and replace them with a modified finger, which she said would improve rideability.

“It’s still going to be a bump, but it’s not going to be an abrupt bump and elevation change,” Thomas said.

She estimated the cost of materials to be around $5,000, and she noted that it would require a brief closure of the viaduct, which she would prefer to do between the morning traffic and the late-afternoon rush hour. Councilor Dex Walker commented that he felt the expenditure would constitute a “reasonable” use of $5,000 while allowing the city more time to seek grant funding for bigger improvements.

Fellow Councilor Gabe Isom asked if the temporary fix would hold up long enough to keep the bridge operational until the grant funding is secured — Thomas said the earliest construction would start on the project is late 2025 — and she responded that her department was optimistic the short-term repair would last two to three years. She also mentioned the possibility of re-welding additional joints as needed with city staff.

Councilor Jeff Schneider motioned to allocate up to $10,000 to address the issue, and it carried by a 6-0 vote with Mike Ladehoff absent.

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Contact Robert Maharry

at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or

rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.