After receiving no contractor bids, Iowa City canceled plans to renovate the Riverside Drive pedestrian bridge in December, but students who use it daily say the problems haven’t disappeared.
Sam Benton, a fourth-year nursing major, said she walks across the bridge every weekday to access the University of Iowa’s medical campus on the other side of Riverside Drive.
“It’s decaying,” Benton said, glancing at the eroded walkway.
Snaking upward in a sharp spiral just off Iowa Avenue, the bridge’s white concrete is chipped and weathered, its incline more daunting than it seems from a distance as it rises from the river’s edge to the elevated path crossing over Riverside Drive. Benton said that the pedestrian bridge can be treacherous in snowy and icy conditions.
“I’ve seen a lot of people falling,” Benton said. “It’s not super safe.”
A May 2024 Council Action Report cited a 2019 inspection that identified concrete spalling, delamination, and exposed reinforcing on the Riverside Drive pedestrian bridge, recommending $1.25 million in repairs to restore its structure and appearance. Construction was expected to start this summer, but when no contractors bid on the project, the city cancelled it.
City manager Geoff Fruin said that the City of Iowa City is continuing ongoing repairs as needed to ensure the safety of the bridge.
“There have been no structural issues identified with the bridge. It remains safe to utilize,” Fruin wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan. “There is concrete spalling occurring on the bridge and interim repairs will continue to be made to address those non-structural issues.”
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The Council Action Report also noted that, due to a 2002 Memorandum of Understanding, it shares maintenance responsibilities for the three pedestrian bridges over Riverside Dr, including the Iowa Ave. pedestrian bridge. Fruin said the City of Iowa City will continue to collaborate following the bridge renovation’s cancellation.
“The City continues to work [with] the Iowa Department of Transportation and University of Iowa to determine the best course of action after no bids were received on the bridge rehabilitation project,” Fruin wrote. “This is a critical multimodal corridor—any future plans will continue to prioritize the safe travel across the highway for all users.”
Adam Heflin, in his first year of the Master of Science in Nursing program, frequently crosses the bridge and said that the need for a renovation is clear just by looking at it.
“It’s not kept up well,” Heflin said. “You can obviously tell.”
Heflin said he was unaware the city had canceled the renovation but felt improvements were overdue.
“It wouldn’t be a bad thing,” Heflin said of the possibility of a renovation. “It is kind of an eyesore.”