LANSING, Iowa — The Black Hawk Bridge connecting Lansing to Wisconsin has closed as crews begin demolishing the structure. The new bridge won’t be ready until 2027.

The bridge officially closed at 7 a.m. Monday.

The decision to close the bridge now was made for safety reasons related to the construction project. Clayton Burke, the Black Hawk Bridge project manager, said there are no immediate structural concerns on the roughly 100-year-old bridge. Still, construction on the new bridge could risk the safety of the current one.

“We didn’t want the, you know, the catastrophic failure of the existing bridge would be terrible. So this is a concession we had to make to continue the construction of the new bridge,” Burke said.

Bridge history of closures

The current bridge has had multiple

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