Lincoln County Board of Commision
The Lincoln County Board of Commissioners has determined the need to close the N. Sutherland River Bridge on North Prairie Trace Road over the North Platte River for a scheduled bridge replacement project. We are currently planning to close the bridge as soon as Wednesday, October 25th, 2023 as construction will start immediately after. The closure is expected to last until Summer 2025.
Please use West Suburban Road, North Hershey Road, and North River Road to detour the closure. The detour route can also be completed using State Highway 30, North Hershey Road, and North River Road. Exhaustive efforts to keep the existing bridge open during the construction of the new structure, or a temporary bridge structure being put in place, have been pursued and, unfortunately, are not possible due to several factors.
They include environmental concerns and regulations, hydrological flows of the North Platte River, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' lengthy review process, and the risk of losing state funding that is vital to building the new structure. Conversations and planning have been done with area first responder organizations to ensure that a seamless and thorough plan for responding to emergencies north of the river is in place. Road crews have prioritized the detour routes for maintenance and snow removal, including adding aggregate materials to the road in order to mitigate wear and tear due to increased traffic.
Conversations have also been had with the selected contractor, who has been a good partner in this process, and who is committed to working on the new structure year-round and completing the bridge on time. Their construction workers are part of our local community. We extend our gratitude to them and look forward to working with them throughout this construction process.