A bridge in time saves Zumbrota?
Zumbrota city officials want to know why the record flood stage of 23.2 feet on the Zumbro river didn't cause more damage than in the previous flood in 2005, when the river also hit 23.2. Zumbrota city administrator Neil Jensen thinks the new, wider Highway 58 bridge may have had something to do with it.
Our downtown didn't flood as it did before...Our bottleneck was with the highway 58 bridge, we just made that bottleneck wider. It may have...pushed through faster and may have done a little better job not backing up into our downtown.
The new Highway 58 bridge opened one week ago.
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Jensen says Thursday morning, the flood was predicted to reach as much as five feet above record flood stage by Thursday night, prompting sandbagging of the wastewater treatment plant, the downtown Hub Food Center, and ATMs. Now that the flood danger has passed, the sandbags are moving on, too. North to Cannon Falls where flooding threatens buildings along the Cannon River.
We got some help so we're helping out Cannon Falls. That's the way it's supposed to be.
In case you're curious about whether bridges in Goodhue county can withstand the pounding of floodwaters, Minnesota Compass, a project of the nonprofit Wilder Research lists 11.9% were deficient or obsolete in 2009. That's below the Minnesota statewide percentage of 12.1%