Lewis St. Bridge gets a facelift after 70 years

Drivers, bikers, and runners might need to re-think their route through one busy part of Old Town Pocatello.

On Tuesday morning, crews started tearing into the dilapidated bridge that had been crumbling apart over the course of the nearly 70 years it acted as one of the main connectors through Old Town.

City of Pocatello Public Works Director and City Engineer Jeff Mansfield said the bridge was built even before the concrete channel it sits over.

“You could just look down under the bridge and see the deterioration and all of the rust on that steel,” Mansfield pointed out.

He said when the bridge was inspected, it scored in the 40s – out of 100.

But the real challenge was getting enough funding.

That took seven years until the federal government was finally able to give the city enough money to pay for the estimated $1.3 million project.

“There are about 1,700 cars that cross this bridge every single day,” Mansfield added. “It’s a good connector between the east and west side of town.”

He and the project manager, engineer Dierdre Castillo, have also been working to widen the bridge to make way for a bike lane.

He estimates the total time the bridge will be closed could be around four months, and he added he appreciates the public’s patience while they work to make this safer for everyone in the community.