Lyon County, Iowa — While flooding and flood-related repairs are wrapping up in some parts of northwest Iowa, there’s a lot more work to do in other areas.
We talked to Lyon County Secondary Road Engineer Laura Sievers about flooding and flood damage in that county. She says while the number of closed roads has gone down, they’re still dealing with a large number of flood issues.
According to Sievers, there are no longer any hard-surfaced roads closed for flooding or flood damage to the road surface. She says one of the main problems right now is bridge damage. She tells us about those.
According to Sievers, the bridges are all on the eastern side of the county.
The two on Larch Avenue are actually not very close to each other. The Larch and 160th Street bridge is over the Little Rock River, a mile south and three west of Little Rock. The other one between 260th and 270th Streets is over the Otter Creek, a little over a mile north of Matlock. Meanwhile, A52 is the road on the south side of Doon, going east and ending on the Boyden to George blacktop, or L14. The bridge goes over Otter Creek, a mile and a half west of L14.
She says A52 will be closed until probably late fall, so if your commute involves that road, you’ll have to find another route until then. She says it’s going to take a lot longer for the other two bridges.
According to Sievers, on K42 north and south of Doon, there are some places where there’s no shoulder left. She says it’s drivable and open to the public, but the large ag equipment will have to take another route, as there is no shoulder for them to use.
She says they’re doing all they can to get the roads back to normal, as they know that it affects people in a big way when roads are closed.
