Greenwood bridge job moved back to 2024

A project that will replace the Clark County Road G bridge over the Black River at Greenwood has been moved back a year to 2024 on the Wisconsin Department of Transportation’s schedule. Contributing to the delay are questions regarding the 80-year-old structure’s historic value, according to Clark County Highway Commissioner Brian Duell. He said last week that State Historic Preservation office is classifying the overhead truss structure as one with historic value, while the Federal Bureau of Structures and the state Department of Transportation contend it does not have such value.

The project will completely remove and replace the bridge, a process that is expected to take several months and will close down access to the west of Greenwood on County Road G. The work was initially scheduled to be done in 2023, but that has now been pushed back as agencies resolve the dispute over the historic value of the bridge. It is the last overhead span in Clark County.

Duell said a historic designation means planners would have to take extra steps to prepare for the bridge replacement. If it is deemed historic, efforts have to be made to allow someone to claim it when it is torn down.

“The end result will be the same no matter what the determination is – the bridge will be removed and replaced,” Duell said. “The process of getting there is what will change. If historic, there are extra steps to preserving a piece or offering the bridge to be moved (at the expense of whomever wants it).”

The new bridge will be a slightly longer concrete span, with no overhead structure. The bidding process for the planned 2023 construction process had not yet been completed, so the exact cost of the replacement is not yet known. The bridge is expected to be wider to more easily accommodate traffic and larger farm equipment. An extra lane is also to be added to the span to handle snowmobile traffic. That extra cost is to be covered by a grant from the state snowmobile association.