The Superior Express -

Highway construction work is continuing in Superior as the calendar turns to the second half of 2023.

In recent weeks a utility contractor has been working along the west side of Idaho Street near the northern edge of Superior relocating a water main that was in the way of a highway improvement project scheduled to start yet this year which includes resurfacing, new sidewalks and intersection work. The resurfacing is to extend from Eighth Street north to the west Highway 136 junction.

Work is yet to begin on relocating the water main located along the north side of East Third Street which serves the Village of Hardy. The work must be completed before East Third Street can be widened to provide a turning lane. The highway project is to extend from Hartly Street to just east of the South Central Vet. Clinic.

Those projects are being funded by the Nebraska Department of Roads.

The City of Superior will finance a major project in the Highway 14 business corridor.

In recent days the city has learned the time for starting the Fourth Street project has been advanced to tentatively start the third week of July.

As part of the current 1 and 6 year street improvements plan, Fourth Street from the intersection with Bloom through the intersection with Dakota will be replaced. It is anticipated the work will take the contractor approximately one month to complete. During this time, this section of Fourth Street and the intersection of 4th and Dakota will be closed to all traffic. Local traffic will still be able to access residences and businesses from adjoining side streets but motorists will not be able to access the central business district by turning off of Bloom Street and the north entrance into Casey’s will be closed.

Plans call for replacing the concrete surface which is breaking up because of the stress provided by turning trucks. The street will be widened to provide a turn lane and the storm sewer modified in an attempt to better drain the area.

Work is also underway repairing bridges on Highway 14 from Superior to the stateline. This week the bridges over Lost Creek are reduced to one lane controlled by stoplights.

This isn’t the first time the bridges to the southwest have made the news.

In early May of 1931, three spans of a concrete bridge erected in 1915 to replace a Republican River bridge west of Superior which washed out in the 1915 flood, dropped into the river.

The Express reported on May 7, 1931, heavy rains west of Superior transformed the river into a veritable torrent causing a higher overflow than had been known since 1915, On both sides of the stream, tremendous tracts of farm land were submerged under water.

The failed bridge was located a few yards above the Southern Nebraska Power Company dam. It was probably between the present bridge and the bridge it replaced in the 1980s.

The contractor now working on the existing bridge has said it appears to be sound. However the approaches to the current bridge were failing. Last week the work to replace approaches used by drivers heading into Kansas reached the point that traffic was diverted onto what had been the southbound lane and work started to replace the approaches utilized by traffic coming into Nebraska from Kansas.

In excavating the approaches, interesting materials were found. It is speculated at least some of the material probably dates to the time of a previous bridge failure.

After reading past issues of this newspaper, we are unable to confirm stories told by the late W. A. and “Roy Blauvelt. They both told this writer that a temporary pontoon-style bridge was used while waiting for the construction of the bridge that served until the current bridge was built more than 50 years later. W. A. Blauvelt thought he may have been the last motorist to cross the concrete bridge before its collapse.

Among the finds of the current construction workers have been long pilings that appeared to have been screwed rather than driven into the ground. They are of an unusual design and the first ever found by the foreman of the current project. It is thought they may have been anchors used to hold the pontoon bridge in place. There has also been rock and concrete rubble found, both of which are probably related to the failed and temporary bridges.

The concrete bridge was constructed in 1915. While it was an imposing structure, local men at the time of its construction said it would not stand because the contractor responsible for its construction had not sunk the pilings low enough. A 1923 flood damaged the bridge and it was not considered safe for heavy loads after that. However, it continued to be used until May of 1931.

On May 14, 1931, it was reported R. L. Cochran, the state engineer, had been in Superior to inspect the river crossing and would recommend a temporary five-span, all steel bridge replace the concrete structure. It was thought it could be completed and open for traffic by Sept. 1.

In the meantime the detour route was described as running south on the Webber road to the first corner south of the White Eagle filling station thence west and north to the stateline filling station. Subsequent stories referred to the detour route as “The Loop.”

The Nuckolls County Commissioners determined The Loop wasn’t fast enough and decided to construct a temporary bridge utilizing the abutments and remaining spans of the concrete bridge. It was thought the structure could be competed within 10 days. Superior trucks were reported to have hauled most of the lumber down from Nelson that would be needed to complete the temporary bridge.

Evidently the five span bridge promised by the state engineer was never built. The May 21 paper reported two of the new bridge’s three spans were in place and the new bridge was expected to be open by the end of the next week, the article does not refer to it as a pontoon bridge but considering its rapid construction it may have been.

The bridge removed in the 1980s had three spans and a concrete deck. Do you suppose it was the hastily constructed bridge opened less than a month after the concrete bridge’s collapse?

As the bridge aged, the decking was failing and highway department workers were welding steel plates onto the underside to hold the decking in place. The bridge was wider than one lane but hardly wide enough for two trucks to meet. There were stories of truckers losing mirrors when they tried to meet on the bridge.

Pontoon bridges were common in the 1930s. After the 1935 flood, a pontoon bridge connected Guide Rock with the land to the south. A July, 1935, issue of The Express reported Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Phillippi and Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Blauvelt drove to Inavale to view the flood district and crossed the river at Inavale on a pontoon bridge.

The three-span steel and concrete bridge which carried traffic across the river until the present bridge was opened, was said to be a temporary fix. Prior to WWII the state roads department had proposed a new bridge, an overpass over the Burlington and Missouri Pacific railroad tracks and a bypass around the west side of Superior.

That was never constructed and has since been removed from the state plan.