An approximate five mile stretch of road starting at U.S. Highway 169 and 170th Street will be closed until approximately late August, according to Tony Gustafson, an assistant district engineer for the Iowa Department of Transportation.

The purpose of the closure is to complete a bridge deck overlay project over Deer Creek, he said.

“We’re closing the road because the bridge is really narrow,” he said. “(The project) is hard to do under one lane of traffic. So to minimize the time of construction and just to make the project safer, we’re going to close the road and give the contractors less than two months to get it done.”

Normally, Gustafson said a project like this would take four months.

Jesse Tibodeau, district construction engineer with the DOT, said it’s a routine bridge overlay project, which involves milling off about 1 inch of the bridge deck and replacing it, as well as replacing the approaching concrete, fixing up the guard rail and some bridge drains.

“We’ve got the road closed and our contractor hopes to have it opened up by the end of August,” Tibodeau said. “It should be a fairly routine project and hopefully it goes quickly.”

The contractor for the project is Christensen Brothers, Inc., of Cherokee. The cost of the project is about $430,000.

Gustafson said two detours have been set up while the project is ongoing; Webster County Road D14 and Webster County Road C56.

This particular project was identified as one that needed to be done a few years ago, according to Gustafson.

“This bridge is in that 50- to 60-year-old category or older, and it’s time for deck overlay, which re-strengthens the deck,” he said.