A washed out area next to one of the Kenyon Road Bridge supports may look ominous, but it does not threaten the stability of the bridge, according to state Department of Transportation engineers.

City Manager David Fierke received an email Friday from a DOT engineer who wrote “the erosion is not jeopardizing the pier or the bridge.”

The uprights that hold up a bridge are called piers by engineers.

The erosion developed after a slow-moving storm system settled over Fort Dodge Tuesday night and dumped about 3 inches of rain. Department of Transportation engineers checked out the erosion Wednesday morning.

“We do not have any concerns with the pier or the foundation,” an engineer wrote in the message received by Fierke. “These are deep drilled shafts that far exceed the depth of the erosion.”

The bridge pier actually sits atop a reinforced concrete shaft that is four feet in diameter and extends 58 feet below the surface of the ground.

The Kenyon Road Bridge, which consists of spans crossing the Canadian National Railway tracks and the Des Moines River, has been the site of a lot of construction over the past two years.

Last year, the westbound side of the bridge was dismantled and replaced. This year, repairs were completed on the eastbound lanes.