Design for new bridge 'tween Pierre and Fort Pierre keeps on, construction slated to start late 2020/early 2021

The new bridge, due to be complete in 2023, also will be named after Lt. Cmdr John Waldron, the Fort Pierre native and the decorated Navy pilot who was shot down in a heroic attack against Japanese ships that helped win the Battle of Midway in World War II. The current 1,659-foot-long bridge, built in 1960, was named after Waldron on 2002. The bridge has reached its lifespan and needs replacing, DOT engineers have said.

The estimated cost of the entire project is about $45 million, a figure that has gone up mostly via inflation, as discussion and planning has lasted several years already.

The two cities negotiated how to share how much they wanted to spend on “enhancements,” or amenities, to the design on the bridge, such as decorative and other improved lighting, large belvederes and other features that state and federal officials would not pay for.

The talk began with a package of design improvements totalling more than $2 million, which soon was whittled down to under $1 million

Fort Pierre leaders lobbied for a 70/30 split on the cost, with the smaller Fort Pierre paying the smaller share.

Pierre’s City Commission insisted on a 50/50 split.

After paring down enhancement options, each city will pay about $185,000 for the design enhancements on the bridge itself, Hanson said.

Pierre City Commissioner Jamie Huizenga said each city does not have to pay that money up front, but the state Dept. of Transportation will finance those enhancements and pass on the costs to each city, giving them several years to pay it.

Meanwhile, each city is still discussing what it will do with the approaches and the area under each end of the bridge, which will be sited just a few feet north of the current Waldron Bridge, which will be removed once the new bridge is up.

Each city will have a sort of plaza under and around its end of the bridge and each city is designing that a bit different, Huizenga said.

Hanson said Fort Pierre will see the highway from the intersection of Highway 83 and 14 to the bridge get moved to the north to facilitate the new bridge.

The city wants to take advantage of the new space, she said. “So a major feature of our plaza is a cantilevered platform that goes out over the river, to give access to the water,” Hanson said. “So if you want to fish, or just for viewing.”

Currently, (so to speak of the Old Muddy), the rocky rip-rap on the river bank makes it pretty hard to sit and watch the river flow.

“The access will be from the path to the shore, so you will be able to walk or use a wheel chair to be able to get over the water,” Hanson said.

As part of celebrating Waldron in the new bridge with references to him, will include a Navy Cross medal embedded in the sidewalk in the Fort Pierre plaza area under and around the new bridge.

“And we want to create something that will demonstrate and chronicle the history of Fort Pierre,” Hanson said of the city that just recently marked its bicentennial.

“The walls under the bridge will be about 100 feet long and 50 feet wide, so we could put some good-sized panels that can tell the history.”

While the cities’ design requests for enhancements on the upper structure of the bridge itself had to be in by Jan. 1, the approach areas are a different process, Hanson said.

“So we have some to to finalize plans for the plaza area. But anything we wanted included in the bridge design itself had to final by Jan. 1.”

Huizenga said with Pierre’s new $37 million drinking water treatment plant to begin being built this year in the bridge end of Steamboat Park, as well as the new $45 million bridge construction set to begin as early as late this year, it’s going to be busy in that part of Pierre.