Less than 12 hours after the city was divided into two by the flooded Cedar River, motorists no longer have to take a 15-mile detour just to get from the north side to the south side of Charles City and vice versa.
At about 7 pm Sunday (06.23) night, the flood forced City to shutdown the Main Street Bridge after Charles City Police reported possible visible damages to the bridge that had been bombarded with debris from the bulging river. City Administrator Steve Diers said the closure of the bridge, over 110 years old, came “out of an abundance of caution.â€
At about 1:45 am Monday (06.24), the Brantingham/Highway 18 Bridge was also shut down due to the rising waters. Thus, to get from one side of the river to the other, motorists were forced to travel through Floyd, where the Highway 218 bridge over the Cedar River has been going through an overlay project in recent months, limiting traffic to one lane alternating in each direction.Â
However, the DOT’s Pete Hjelmstad said they opened the bridge to two-way traffic at about 7 am Monday morning.
Fortunately, that detour was short-lived, with the Brantingham/Highway 18 Bridge reopened to traffic shortly before 1:30 pm Monday afternoon.
Still, Hjelmstad cautions that some roads could be flooded for a few days.
For road condition updates across the state, visit www.511ia.org
