The Sutliff Bridge is a bridge over the Cedar River at Sutliff, a Johnson County community near Lisbon,

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to th ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. A

Parker truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

bridge, it was built in 1897 and 1898 at a cost of approximately $12,000. with J. R. Sheely was the engineer for the original Sutliff Bridge. After a modern replacement was built over the Cedar in 1983, the bridge was slated for destruction, but it was ultimately saved, and on May 15, 1998, it was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

. Although the bridge remained a celebrated location for locals and for visitors from across Iowa, including a 5k foot race beloved as the “worst road race in America", it succumbed to massive floods in the second week of June 2008: while the river normally flowed many feet below the bottom of the bridge, the floods topped the bridge's deck, and one of the bridge's spans was washed away on June 13 as the surrounding countryside was inundated with vast amounts of water. It is estimated that restoring the bridge will cost $1.7 million. Most of this money would come from the

Federal Emergency Management Agency The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), initially created under President Jimmy Carter by Presidential Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1978 and implemented by two Ex ...

(FEMA), with the rest coming from donations and local governments; both FEMA and the Johnson County Board of Supervisors have agreed in principle to repair the bridge. The bridge reconstruction was supervised by VJ Engineering of Coralville, Iowa, and construction was completed by Iowa Bridge and Culvert of Washington, Iowa. In October 2012 a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held, opening the bridge to public use for the first time in four years. Sutliff Bridge three-quarters.jpg, Sutliff Bridge before its collapse Sutliff Bridge truss.jpg, Sutliff Bridge truss badly damaged in 2008 flood, downstream from bridge

References

External links

Photographs of the bridge collapse
*
Johnson County survey on replacing the span
{{NRHP in Johnson County, Iowa Bridges completed in 1897 Transportation buildings and structures in Johnson County, Iowa Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Historic American Engineering Record in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Johnson County, Iowa Parker truss bridges in the United States

See also

References

External links