The Jasper County Road Department has confirmed the upcoming closure of County Highway F-62, just east of Lynnville. In a notice to the public, the Road Department says the 7 a.m. closure Tuesday, April 1st is for the replacement of the bridge over the North Skunk River. Jasper County Engineer Mike Frietsch says this road closure is expected to last late into November, probably until Thanksgiving. He also expects it to have a significant impact on travel in that area

“I am not going to mince words. This is going to be tough. There is no other good alternative to that road at all. The traffic count is higher. It’s going to have a regional impact basically.”

Frietsch says all the steel on the current bridge is original from when it was built in 1935, but the bridge deck was replaced and widened from 24 to 26 feet in 1990. That’s when Highway F-62 was still Iowa Highway 225. Jasper County took over maintenance for the highway in the early 2000s.

Peterson Contractors of Reinbeck submitted the only bid on the 498-foot bridge replacement. Their $2,233,387 quote was below the $2.4 million engineer’s estimate.