The road to the end of a railroad bridge saga was a long one in Washington County, but on Tuesday commissioners voted to effectively end the county's involvement.
The county struck an agreement with Inver Grove Heights to remove the remaining unattached piers of the Rock Island Swing Bridge, which opened in 1895 and funneled trains and automobile traffic across the Mississippi River until 1997.
Washington County will act as a "fiscal agent" to funnel about $600,000 in state disaster funds to the city for demolition of the piers, at no cost to county residents, said Wayne Sandberg, the county's assistant engineer.
Inver Grove Heights, which is on the Dakota County side of the river, plans to build a walkway to the remaining segment of the bridge and link both to a river walking trail, Sandberg said. Much of that money will come from federal stimulus dollars with construction to begin this month, he said.
The total project will cost $2.2 million. All of the spans on the Washington County side of the river at Newport have been removed, but the piers that supported them remain. That side of the river, at the Marathon Oil refinery, no longer has public access.
Removals of the remaining piers will improve barge safety by freeing the channel of obstacles, Sandberg said.
The agreement won't proceed unless the Legislature repeals a moratorium put in place in May that prohibits further demolition, he said.
KEVIN GILES
