(Atlantic) The Cass County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing later this month on the possible closing of County roadway at 570th Street, the I-80 underpass.
County Engineer Trent Wolken said the DOT has an incentive program that if the county would choose to eliminate that underpass the DOT would credit the county 1.5 million dollars that would be designated for bridge projects.
Scott Schram is with the Iowa DOT….
Schram said the cost difference between not putting a bridge back in, but a culvert instead, is going to be roughly three or four million dollars in savings.
The DOT owns the land to the bridge and the County just has a right-of-way, which is what the DOT is asking to vacate. Supervisor Steve Green said one concern of the Board is the potential liability.
Engineer Trent Wolken also stated that there were concerns from the residents on the south side of the bridge because if the road were to become a dead-end their only way out would be across a bridge and if the water were to rise above the bridge they wouldn’t be able to get out.
The Supervisors set a public hearing on the possible vacation of 570th Street for October 29th at 9:00 a.m.
In other news, the Supervisors approved the appointment of Doreen South as Auditor’s Assistant to fill the vacancy left by Mary Anstey. The Board also held more discussion on being part of the Iowa Statewide Interopable Communications System and the funding costs. Last week, the Supervisors had set a hearing on a proposal to fund the project for October 12th.
