By: Matt Scher, matts@977thebolt.com
Dakota City, IA – Murray Bridge was selected to receive funding from the County Bridge Construction Fund for the state fiscal year 2024 (July 2023 through June 2024). The announcement was made by Humboldt County Engineer Ben Loots at Monday’s Humboldt County Board of Supervisors session.
The selection comes after the previous 15 years of rejection, as the bridge project had fallen just short of funding due to lower monetary levels in the program. The selection of the bridge is based on the criteria in Local Systems Instructional Memorandum (1.M.)1.100, Attachment B, “County Bridge Priority Point Rating Worksheet”, which was approved by the ICEA Executive Board.
Under this program, counties receive $2,000,000 per year in state funds for selected bridges. Federal funds are also contributed to this program, but the amount varies each year depending on the federal funds available, typically, a minimum of $2,000,000 annually. This year, there was a total of $14,000,000 available in combined state and federal funds.
The funds would have to be allocated within three years by the county. The estimated bridge cost is around the 5,000,000 dollar mark on the north-south route and would cost 4 million if the east-west route was chosen.
Loots detailed the next steps in the project once accepted.
He says the archaeological study should be wrapping up.
The county approved accepting the funds to proceed with the project from the DOT unanimously.