Portion of Gordon Drive viaduct closes due to deterioration

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — During a recent preventative maintenance project, the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) decided the Gordon Drive viaduct was in worse shape than previously thought.

“The deterioration was more than we anticipated and therefore, precautionary, we shut down both westbound lanes of Gordon Drive Viaduct,” Jessica Felix with the Iowa DOT said.

The DOT saw many issues underneath the bridge.

“The pier cap, the concrete and some of the reinforcing,” Felix said.

The Gordon Drive viaduct carries 20,000 vehicles daily, including first responders. Ryan Collins with Sioux City Fire Rescue said that while the detour now in place is causing traffic delays, it’s nothing officials haven’t dealt with before.

“We’ve had traffic accidents up on the viaduct before where the traffic’s backed all the way up.” he said.

For the time being, vehicles going westbound towards downtown Sioux City will need to follow the newly posted detours.

“Yes, it might slow us down a little bit, but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t affect us all that much,” Collins said.

The Iowa DOT will soon get to work on repairing the bridge, which they believe will take four or more weeks to fix. The Iowa 511 traffic site currently shows the westbound lanes closed until June 21.  But officials said it will have no impact on the eventual Gordon Drive replacement project.

“So this was part of the plan of keeping the Golden Drive viaduct in service until we could get to the replacement project,” Felix said. “So the 2024 maintenance project was part of the maintenance plan in order to keep the structure viable until 2028 when we begin construction of the new structure.”

Back in 2008, the Gordon Drive viaduct was rated the ninth most structurally deficient bridge in the Hawkeye State, alongside two other Sioux City bridges.

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