WINNEBAGO, Neb. — A federally funded bridge to somewhere on the Winnebago Indian Reservation has been a bridge to nowhere for much of this year.
High flows in the Missouri River since spring have kept the crossing submerged much of this year, inspiring some locals to tag the low-slung span the “upside-down bridge.''
The asphalt deck of the span was under about three feet of water as of last week. Highway-style guardrails were hidden from view, except where they rose out of the channel at the banks. Logjams of fallen trees washed down river by floodwaters piled up against the upstream side of the bridge.
The crossing is a bridge created by concrete culverts installed at the tribe's request by the Army Corps of Engineers to provide foot and vehicle access across a man-made river channel to a heavily wooded island in the Missouri east of Winnebago.
Not only does the river run through it, it's running over it.
“It's functioning as designed,'' said Matt Krajewski, who manages corps projects to restore habitat along the river.
The glitch has been the river itself.
“When the water is low, it runs through the culverts,'' Krajewski said. “When the water is up, it goes over it without hurting the bridge. This has been an abnormal year.''
The Missouri is expected to remain abnormally high through November as the corps flushes water out of its reservoirs on the river in Nebraska, the Dakotas and Montana to make room for next spring's snowmelt runoff. The corps projects that runoff this year will hit 153 percent of normal. The last time the reservoirs held as much water at the end of summer was in 1999.
Pete Snowball, a Winnebago Tribe conservation officer, said the isolated island is a popular place for people to picnic, hunt mushrooms, camp, fish and hunt. Deer and wild turkey are abundant. A shallow lake carved into the island by the corps is a local swimming hole.
With the island virtually inaccessible, Big Bear Park, a picnic and camping area across the bridge from the island, is receiving heavy recreational use, Snowball said.
“The water is murky and flowing fast. The fishing is not that great down there,'' he said.
Some people ventured onto the bridge to swim and play between the railings on hot summer days, said Elmer Baker, head of the tribal roads department.
“I'd see some kids and ask them where they were going, and they'd say they were going down to the river to swim on top of the bridge,'' he said.
Baker watches the river level closely for opportunities to drive a backhoe across the span to remove tree debris. It's a chore that he performs about three times a year.
The water crossing the bridge is actually a chute completed by the corps in 2005 as part of a $2.8 million fish and wildlife mitigation project at Glovers Point Bend. The 10,700-foot-long chute follows the path of an old channel that existed before the river was made more navigable after World War II.
That resulted in the loss of most islands, sandbars, backwaters and wetlands. Mitigation projects, such as the one at Winnebago, re-create habitat critical to endangered species, game fish and waterfowl. They also provide new fishing, bird-watching and other recreational opportunities.
Baker and Snowball monitor the bridge and chute and the debris that gathers. Baker wonders if a rock jetty would help keep trees out of the bridge railing, but Krajewski says that it could curb water flow and that debris in the river is biologically beneficial.
Snowball said the flooded bridge should remind people of how dangerous the Missouri can be.
“There's big trees on top and a lot of debris whirling around under the surface. It has speed and undertow,” he said. “Even in backwater areas, the banks can be undercut by water. It's not a river to fool around with.''
Snowball said he expects to see big chunks of missing asphalt in the current bridge after months under water.
“There probably are some pretty good-sized holes,” he said. “We'll know when the water goes down in December.''
Meanwhile, the trunk of a large fallen cottonwood tree lies across the approach to the bridge to prevent vehicles from attempting to cross.
Hunters Barry Fiscus of Jackson, Neb., and Chad Saunders of South Sioux City, Neb., out scouting for deer one day last week, stopped for a few minutes to check the status of the bridge.
“My dad used to bring me here to hunt ducks and fish,'' said Fiscus, looking across the water at the island before heading north on a dirt road along the river.
It looked like the island would remain a wildlife refuge for a while longer.
Contact the writer:
444-1127, david.hendee@owh.com
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