Post date: Apr 17, 2014 1:43:9 AM

From: LORI POTTER Hub Staff Writer | Posted: Tuesday, April 8, 2014 12:10 pm {Johnson Lake walking bridge gets tripped up}

HOLDREGE — New specifications for a pedestrian bridge across the Johnson Lake outlet canal are being considered by Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District officials and the Lexington family donating the bridge.

At Monday’s CNPPID board meeting, Central’s Gothenburg Division Manager Kevin Boyd said there have been “some struggles” to make sure the bridge that would be part of the lake’s hike-bike trail meets pedestrian safety codes.

Requirements for more welding and heavier steel for the original free-span design have raised the cost estimate from around $300,000 to nearly $500,000, Boyd said.

In May 2013, Eilers Machine & Welding Inc. President Chase Eilers told the CNPPID board that it was the idea of his mother, Anne, to donate the bridge in memory of his father, Brian, who had died three years earlier. Another incentive to enhance the trail was that Anne had been seriously injured in the past when she was struck by a vehicle while riding her bicycle on a road.

The plan then was to construct a pedestrian bridge 180-200 feet long and 10 feet wide. Eilers said it probably would be manufactured in three parts at his plant and then moved to the trail.

At that May meeting, the CNPPID board accepted the Eilers family’s offer and authorized Central staff to work with the Johnson Lake Trails Committee on other components of the bridge project.

Also at the May 6 board meeting, Boyd told the Hub that Central would provide about $150,000 toward the project, including the costs to prepare the site and to design, transport and install the bridge. The board approved a $22,405 contract with Miller & Associates of Kearney for bridge-related engineering work.

Monday, Boyd said Eilers had contacted him recently to say he was looking at contracting with a Florida firm to build a less expensive aluminum bridge, which would require two pilings in the outlet canal.

Boyd and CNPPID Director Ron Fowler of Johnson Lake then met with Eilers.

The new design probably will involve three spans weighing a total of 30,000-32,000 pounds. Boyd said that compares with the original free-standing steel bridge weighing 90,000 pounds.

It is believed the new bridge would meet safety codes, he said, and Miller & Associates engineers are looking at the new design, including the pilings, “to be sure there are no surprises.”

Fowler said bridge abutments can be smaller if there are pilings in the stream and that should offset some of the piling costs.

“We need to see what Miller & Associates comes back with ... from the trails committee’s standpoint, we don’t care if it is steel or aluminum,” he added.

Boyd expects to present more information at the March 25 committee meeting of the CNPPID Board.