Linn County Public Works Administrator, Shawn West, spoke to commissioners again last week on the Hell’s Bend Bridge Project, northwest of La Cygne, noting that a decision needed to be made that day as it was due the previous Friday and West had requested and received an extension until that day.
The bridge has been an issue since it was first listed as fracture critical and funding was applied for and accepted in 2020. At that point the project weighed in at $798,000 in total with the county portion being $144,000. The initial grant was accepted in October of 2020 by a commissioners board. An inability to find enough bidders on the project resulted in the grant being applied for again and this time funding came in at $1.7 million dollars with the county portion at $439,000.
A short time later in the meeting, Chad McCullough, with Kaw Valley Engineering, spoke to commissioners regarding the grant process by which the bridge would be repaired, noting that there is a “whole lot of complexity to this project.”
