After years of work to find adequate funding to replace the Williams Bridge, Hamilton County Engineer Ryan Weidemann can finally focus on the bridge work itself. During the Hamilton County Supervisor meeting on Tuesday, the county supervisors were informed the bids that came in for the six bridges which were packaged together were awarded to Peterson Contractors, Inc. of Reinbeck.

“Our portion came in approximately $1M under the estimate.” he informed the supervisors. The bids came in from four different contractors.

The bids to Hamilton County to replace the Williams bridge were as follows:

Peterson Contractors Inc. — $5,034,706.09

Cramer and Associates Inc. — $5,100,310.64

United Contractors Inc. — $5,165,412.06

A.M. Cohron & Son, Inc. — $5,556,615.42

The numbers for the entire project, including the other five counties are as follows:

For all six bridges (controlling):

Peterson Contractors Inc. — $37,426,529.79

Cramer and Associates Inc. — $39,483,656.47

A.M. Cohron & Son, Inc. — $40,848,667.43

United Contractors Inc. — $42,090,582.34

“Each county has funding unique to its project,” he explained. “Hamilton County’s funding is estimated to be approximately $3.7M from the Bridge Investment Program–BIP Grant, $1M from Iowa DOT City Bridge Funding and $300K from Farm to Market Funding.”

With the joint project coming in under anticipated expense, it is just a matter of moving forward. Each county must have approvals in place, and that was completed during the Tuesday meeting.

“The Hamilton County Supervisors approved a Resolution to award the project, as part of a combined contract with Buchanan, Cedar, Jones, Monroe, and Washington County,” said Weidemann. “Washington County was the lead applicant for the Bridge Investment Program Grant, and per the stipulations of the grant award, they are the contracting authority, and sign the contract, once all of the other counties approve similar resolutions to award their projects.”

Weidemann had put together several efforts to fund the Williams bridge work since 2020, but had been unsuccessful.

“We essentially couldn’t fund this bridge,” said Weidemann during the meeting. He said this only was accomplished with a lot of help from the Ames Alliance and Congressional delegations who had been contacted looking for ways to help fund it. That assistance came from Ottie Maxey and the Ames Alliance including Dan Culhane, president and chief executive officer of the Ames Regional Economic Alliance; Matt Rector, with U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley’s office; Jim Oberhelman, with U.S. Congressman Randy Feenstra’s office; and Greg Picklap, director for Economic Development and Public Policy for the Ames Regional Economic Alliance.

“These are critical bridges for the local systems,” he said. The Williams bridge was constructed in the 1930’s, he explained, and is not as safe.

“It is rated as poor, and it also has a load rating restriction on it. It’s reached the end of its useful life cycle.”

The new bridge will be 16 feet wider than the old bridge. The existing bridge is 24 feet wide, and the new one will be 40 feet wide.”

As much work as this took to get to this point, things don’t really slow down, according to Wiedemann.

“Now we gotta build it.” he mused.

Once the project starts, the county engineer and his staff will be busy.

“I am the project engineer for the project, so myself and the staff will be monitoring the construction, handling all the contractor administration, issuing progress payments, tracking working days and testing the materials to ensure it is in accordance with the plans.”

Once the ink has dried on the last resolution, it will be about a month before there will be conversations with the contractor about schedules. With six bridges there has to be a pretty flexible construction schedule.

“It could be as soon as this summer or as late as next spring.” he said.

During the construction project, there will be some inconveniences for those who use the bridge regularly. But Weidemann says it will be so much better.

“I think when the bridge is complete, it will be a great improvement for anyone traveling in the Williams area.”

In other action, the lease agreement with Iowa Specialty Hospital for a few parking spots was terminated as they are taking over the entire property with a more recent lease agreement.

Also the supervisors set a public hearing on the fiscal year 2026 budget amendment for May 26 at 6 p.m.