The small room in Egan City Hall where the City Council meets each month was packed and overflowing this past Wednesday night. Community members unaware there had been an application filed and awarded by the state to replace their historic one-lane steel bridge on the east edge of town turned out to voice opposition to the move. Every single person in the room instead raised questions about how they might repair or save the old structure.
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By Carleen Wild
Moody County Enterprise
A decision regarding the historic one-lane bridge in Egan is on hold.
City trustees this past Wednesday night weighed the options before them for the 102-year-old structure in front of a packed house. Their small meeting room just inside Egan City Hall, which normally might see the five or so people each month on the Council, this time was packed — front to back, side to side, and overflowing into the hallway.
Two engineers from the engineering firm IMEG, squeezed into a small hallway space off to the side in the front so they could easily talk with Council members and the community. Kevin Goff and Collin Kelly offered explanations as to why they believe the bridge has exceeded its lifetime, what the town’s options are, and what a replacement bridge could cost the town, if anything.
The engineers also offered thoughts on what it might cost the small rural community if they do nothing.
“The structure is not even performing the way it was designed because it’s seized up with rust. That’s a really cool bridge but it’s not easy to maintain, nothing that anyone who is alive today did, but 50 years ago they should have been greasing those joints,” said Goff.
The floor beams of the truss are corroded, and the concrete deck is thin, he added. It is why capacity is reduced in terms of weight limits and the structure is considered in poor condition.
“I wouldn’t want to be the 18-year-old kid during harvest that has to go to the bathroom and he takes a shortcut and drives over the bridge and the bridge falls down. You’re right, there’s no reason for the traffic. If you want to ride it out, until it’s done, but the bridge is 102-years-old and it’s probably the oldest one in service, so at some point you’re going to have to make the decision.”
Egan’s City Council this past year applied for and was awarded a nearly $6 million grant to remove and replace the historic structure on the east edge of town over the Big Sioux River. The application, until recently, went largely unnoticed.
Now that decisions need to be made to either move forward with its removal and replacement, understand better what weight limits might need to be in place to protect any further use of the bridge, or if it should be open to anything other than pedestrian traffic, local residents are paying attention.
Harvey Donley, an outspoken advocate to save the bridge, said he’s actually heard from more than 170 alumni and friends who remain in the area or who have since moved away on the matter. None of them want to see the old bridge torn down, even if it is closed from here on out to pedestrian traffic only.
That was largely the sentiment of everyone in the room.
Generations of locals grew up going over that old steel one-lane bridge time and again. They honestly can’t imagine Egan without it.
The crowd there to listen to options this past week was emotional — tears were shed talking about the loss of the town’s history, and potentially about the loss of the one thing that connects not only one side of the river to the other, but the one very clear connection between every single person that’s ever grown up in and around Egan.
A few were otherwise heated over the amount of money that might get spent to put in a new bridge.
“If that bridge was closed today… Boom. Done. Just who would be impacted by that in any way that they would not be able to get where they need to go,” said Barb Warborg, a 50-year resident of the community.
“That bridge is unnecessary. It is. Other than a landmark for the City of Egan, to spend millions of dollars…that’s what is wrong with this country. ‘It’s free, spend it.’ No it’s not free. There has to be some common sense here.”
A gentleman behind her in the room quickly replied, “If Egan doesn’t get it, somebody will.”
“Well maybe they need it,” she answered, with passion in her eyes.
The Council ultimately voted to table a decision until a new inspection is done and that report assessed. That inspection should come this year.
In the meantime, IMEG told the community it is their job to develop a plan the town wants should they want anything. The grant opportunity remains if Egan decides it is the best and the safest route to replace the historic structure in the coming years. The project would have to be bid by 2027 with construction likely in 2028.
