Greene County and the City of Jefferson are partnering together for a joint project.

The Grimmell Road bridge, south of Greene County Medical Center, is in need of replacement and the City of Jefferson recently took a step toward that end goal. The City Council approved accepting up to $500,000 from the Iowa Department of Transportation for that project, which City Administrator Mike Palmer says there are some caveats with that.

“It’s called a city bridge funding. Once the offer is accepted, it’s good to be used up to three years from there. But as explained to the Council that (the) DOT is pretty flexible with this. If they see that other funding is being accumulated, they’re going to do everything they can to help get that bridge replaced for us.”  

Greene County Engineer Wade Weiss tells Raccoon Valley Radio the county also has interest in getting this bridge, which is within Jefferson city limits, replaced.

“It’s a vital farm-to-market road for those residents out in that area. The problem is right now there’s load limits on that structure. So what happens is then traffic goes elsewhere, so we get that back in shape, we’ll see a little more use on it. It’s just going to be beneficial to everyone in that area.”

The estimated cost to replace the bridge is between $3-4 million, which Weiss is hoping that between the county and city bridge funding streams, no county taxpayer money will be needed.