PROJECT

 

Red Cloud South Bridge, CN 42717, STP-281-1(116)

   

Delivery Method: CM/GC

Advertisement Date: June 2025

 

 

 

Key Repairs:

   

• Reconstruction of the roadway a short distance north and south of the bridge to accommodate the new alignment.

• Improvements such as pavement, shoulders, grading, drainage, and guardrails before and beyond the structure.

• Potential construction start and/or end several hundred feet outside the defined project limits to allow for profile adjustments.

• Construction conducted under traffic, with evaluations for temporary use of the existing bridge to maintain traffic flow.

• Possible need for temporary pavement to facilitate traffic maintenance during construction.

• Acquisition of additional property rights as necessary for project completion.

 

Located in Webster County along Highway US -281, the Red Cloud Bridge Project replaces the bridge at mile marker (MM) 4+23.  The Nebraska Bureau of Roads and Bridges designed the Red Cloud Bridge in 1935 after spring floods weakened the previous structure. Although the floods did not wash the old bridge away, they significantly altered the riverbanks, prompting the bureau to construct a new bridge with longer spans at a relocated site.

 

Fabricated and erected by the Omaha Structural Steel Works in 1935 for $83,000, the Red Cloud Bridge has since served as a key highway crossing over the Republican River. Technologically, the bridge is notable as a rare experimental design by the state highway department, representing an uncommon venture into continuous truss engineering and standing as a unique structure in Nebraska.

 

(Source: Federal Highway Administration)