Iowa, Nebraska leaders: Wet weather could slow road repairs

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) — Iowa and Nebraska transportation officials said Thursday that they're hoping to have nearly all roads and bridges that were damaged by last month's flooding repaired by midsummer, but that a wet spring could hamper their efforts.

Iowa Department of Transportation Director Mark Lowe and his Nebraska counterpart, Kyle Schneweis, held a joint news conference in Council Bluffs to update the public on the damage in their states and how long it might take to repair.

In Iowa, the damage is concentrated in the west along Interstate 29 and the Missouri River.

"The work to get traffic moving again has been nonstop," Lowe said. "We have people who don't know what day it is anymore because they've been working day and night."

Lowe said many repairs have been made and some roads have been opened along the interstate north of Council Bluffs, which is just across the river from Omaha, Nebraska. The damage is heavier farther south, where twin bridges along the interstate south of Nebraska City and north of Hamburg, Iowa, were heavily damaged. The state hopes to have traffic moving in that area again by June.

"The complicating factor is that the flooding threat is not over," he said. "Because of damage to the levee system, we will have to balance how future flooding might affect repair efforts."

There were 50 levee breaks along the Missouri River during March flooding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday. Several of them span more than a football field in length, and at least one near the Missouri state line on the Iowa side stretches 1,140 feet. Crews are working to repair those levees, but the Corps has been unable to begin repairs on some areas — mostly in southwestern Iowa — that are still underwater.

Weather experts say this spring...