A one mile stretch of the Raccoon River Valley Trail in northern Guthrie County will be closed longer than initially expected after a bridge was damaged during the Sunday evening storms.

Guthrie County Conservation Director Joe Hanner says the majority of the trail is usable but they will need additional help to complete the bridge repairs.

“The loop is fully functional.  Just north of the loop and north of Herndon we have a large bridge over Greenbrier Creek and a large, large cottonwood limb fell off during the storm event and crushed a good portion of the railings on the bridge” says Hanner.

Initially, Hanner hoped to have everything reopened by the end of the week but he’s having county engineer Josh Sebern inspect the bridge structure to see if it’s still safe and the railings need to be fully replaced before that can happen.

“It looks like it could be into next week before we get the bridge railings repaired and back open, at this time.”

Raccoon Valley Radio will continue to provide updates on the repairs and let you know once the trail is fully reopened.