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The rapid flow of the Blue Earth River has left a trail of debris and destruction along its southern edge. Minnesota The dam partially failed last week, but officials acknowledged Tuesday that the structure most at risk may be a nearby bridge.
The County Road 9 bridge is at risk of collapse, and officials say there is little they can do. The threat to the bridge intensified after heavy rains and flooding hit the bridge. Midwest Over the past few days, the water level of the Blue Earth River has risen sharply, testing the structural integrity of the dam. Although the dam has held up, the danger of collapse has not subsided.
Now, the roughly 40-year-old bridge, which locals use to commute from rural areas to nearby towns, could collapse if the weather doesn’t cooperate.
“Unfortunately, right now we are just resigned to the possibility of a partial or complete collapse of the bridge,” said Ryan Thilges, Blue Earth County Public Works Director. “We are very concerned that the bridge could partially or completely collapse.”
Tilghs stands on a hilltop east of the Rapidan Dam near Mankato, Minn. The governor of Minnesota stands beside him. Tim Waltz and other officials who visited the dam to learn about the flood situation and restoration efforts.
Officials watched dams and bridges warily, noting that the still-raging river had radically transformed the region.
“I think the concern is whether the structure of the bridge will be compromised and will it need to be replaced?” Walz said.
The floodwaters carved a new channel around the dam and cut deeply into the steep riverbank, toppling utility poles, destroying a substation, engulfing a home and forcing a beloved store to relocate. The conditions prevented officials from getting close enough to the bridge for a thorough inspection, but they had already found troubling signs of damage.
The river washed away so much sediment that the bridge’s support piers, which are built on sandstone bedrock, became unstable. Officials were able to stabilize at least one pier but said they were unable to stabilize the others.
Compounding matters on Sunday, Tilgers said, was the “massive amount of trees that fell down the river.” The dead trees, a product of the drought of the past few years, had crashed into the bridge, with some hanging from its piers. The county had been unable to find a contractor it felt safe enough to clear the debris.
“Nobody wants to send out operators and risk their lives to try and push these trees through,” Tielges said.
Flooding in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The dam initially faced an “imminent threat of collapse,” after which officials began to focus on the dam.
The Rapidan Dam is more than a hundred years old and was completed in 1910. Although it was built to generate electricity, it has been damaged by several rounds of flooding in recent decades. An April 2023 assessment by the National Inventory of Dams found that the Rapidan Dam was in poor condition, and officials have been studying the possibility of removing it.
A federal disaster declaration has been approved for Blue Earth County, and local officials say the additional resources are critical to rebuilding efforts. But Thilges said those projects could be complicated by sensitive terrain, with relief efforts sometimes exacerbating declines.
“To be honest, all the solutions we came up with had negative consequences that were almost as bad or worse, either further compromising the stability of the dam or potentially causing damage to the bridge or further erosion,” he added. “We need nature to give us a break.”
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