Highway 34 bridge set for fall completion

PACIFIC JUNCTION — Twenty years of planning, discussing and lobbying lawmakers is about to pay dividends as construction on the highly anticipated Hwy. 34 bridge into Nebraska is nearly complete.

Members of the Southwest Iowa Coalition Transportation Committee toured the construction site last week, where Jensen Construction project engineer Landon Streit predicted the $140-million project would be completed sometime this fall.

“As to when we will be done, I don’t want to be too specific because there are so many issues, most weather related, that can affect a specific date,” Streit said.

With most of the steelwork completed this past winter, Streit said construction crews are now preparing for more concrete work.

“We have 11 big concrete pours left,” Streit said. “They will start once the overnight temperatures warm up and stay warm.”

Of those 11 pourings, Streit said they will range in size from 400-800 yards, requiring up to 80 truckloads each.

And when the pourings start, Streit anticipates having as many as 40 employees onsite on any given day.

The 3,280-foot bridge will extend Hwy. 34 into Nebraska, connecting the major east-west thoroughfare with Highway 75 in eastern Sarpy County, near LaPlatte.

Larry Winum, co-chair of the transportation committee, said completion of this bridge project will hopefully be the catalyst to more development along the Hwy. 34 corridor.

“When the (Southwest Iowa) coalition started, we had some common goals, like Hwy. 34 becoming four-lane to Osceola,” he recalled. “But the traffic counts have to be there. So that’s our next goal, to get the traffic counts up and look at four-laning Hwy. 34.”

Committee member George Maher, a longtime economic developer in nearby Montgomery County, predicted tremendous economic development along the corridor.

“When you look at the land that can be developed right here at the interchange for commercial, business or even residential purposes, the possibilities are endless,” Maher said. “We hope it will develop then into Glenwood, Malvern and then into Red Oak.”

But he said it will also be a boom to the occasional, or frequent, traveler to Omaha.

“The thing that really makes a difference when that bridge gets done is it will only take 40-45 minutes to get to Omaha instead of an hour,” he said. “When you can tie into Omaha like that … it will make a huge difference of everyone east of here.”