Visualization of the Willis Avenue Bridge; photo courtesy of City of Perry
Visualization of the Willis Avenue Bridge; photo courtesy of City of Perry

You would be forgiven if you didn’t know there was a bridge on Willis Avenue in Perry that went over Frog Creek.

Perry City Administrator Sven Peterson admits it doesn’t look like much of a bridge at the moment, but adds that doesn’t mean it can’t be rebuilt. Very soon, construction crews will begin work on the bridge, and Peterson is excited that a project that took so long to get going is at long last moving forward. “As everybody knows, this is a project that we have been talking about for several years, and it’s finally coming to fruition. We did bid it once and it came in, I think $300,000ish over what it should have. So we did have to go back, redesign it, and then rebid it. So (we) should be starting the project somewhere about the second-to-last weekend in March. And then (it) should only be about a three-month project for us.”

The work will be completed by Elder Corporation of Des Moines, and the total project cost is $735,500. However, much of that will be covered by the Department of Transportation. Peterson adds, there will be traffic disruption caused by Willis Avenue being closed for the duration of the project. He points out that you can view the detour routes, as well as conceptual images for the bridge, by going to PerryIA.org.