Mississippi River Bridge Replacement

Mississippi River Bridge Replacement

Lansing, Iowa

Commonly referred to locally as the Blackhawk Bridge, this iconic cantilevered through truss bridge has served as a community-defining iconic structure for the City of Lansing since opening to traffic in 1931.

Needing a newer, wider, and safer crossing, a preliminary design for a replacement bridge structure to maintain and replace this vital connection over the Mississippi River was undertaken by the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) in cooperation with the Wisconsin DOT. Our designers collaborated with a multi-disiciplinary team of engineers to explore and evaluate alternative new bridge alignments and structure types while engaging the community to discuss these alternatives.

As part of the Environmental Assessment, Confluence was also responsible for leading the aesthetic enhancement of the new bridge infrastructure including treatments to retaining walls, bridge abutments, piers, and integration of this new infrastructure into the existing site context. We created three-dimensional renderings and illustrations exploring alternative bridge replacement structures, helped to facilitate extensive community engagement, and explored aesthetic lighting for the new bridge.

Ultimately, the community desired a replacement bridge that closely resembled the look and feel of the existing historic structure.