The Howard Trail Bridge behind the St. Joseph Water Treatment Plant will be closed this coming week.
St. Joseph Public Works Director Greg Grothous tells us there’s been an ongoing restoration project on the pedestrian bridge over the railroad tracks. Work resumes Monday.
“We’ve done a couple of sections of the bridge,” Grothous said. “They removed all the decking off the bridge. They cleaned the steel, so they used some power impact equipment to knock all the rust off the steel frame, look for any holes in the steel frame, and make repairs if needed.”
The bridge was originally built around 2007. Grothous says it needed some work earlier than it should have, partly as a result of both city staff and residents using salting it during the winter.
“They would salt the bridge deck to that it wasn’t slippery so people could use it year-round, and salt and steel don’t like each other. It sped up the deterioration of the steel.”
The city will no longer use salt on the bridge.
Grothous sys the final bit of work starts Monday with some cleaning and inspections. It’s expected the bridge will be back open on Friday.
