Oshkosh's Jackson/Oregon Street bridge will close again next week — but only temporarily

Daphne Lemke and Katy Macek, Oshkosh Northwestern
·2 min read
The Jackson/Oregon Street bridge is pictured July 5. The bridge is expected to close again briefly while crews re-install a gear box.
The Jackson/Oregon Street bridge is pictured July 5. The bridge is expected to close again briefly while crews re-install a gear box.

OSHKOSH – The Jackson/Oregon Street bridge will briefly close again starting at 8 a.m. Monday to re-install the bridge's second gear box.

According to the state Department of Transportation, the bridge is expected to be closed Monday through 5 p.m. Wednesday to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. The project is weather dependent, and it could be shorter if there are favorable conditions.

Jim McDowell, a bridge specialist with the DOT, said crews will work to install a new gearbox and components on the north leaf span of the bridge. They had done the same thing on the south leaf span of the bridge in November, which was the reason for the bridge's original closure that extended six months due to a supply delay for new components.

Now that the south leaf gear box is operating correctly, McDowell said they wanted to be extra cautious.

"Because the gear boxes are the same age, even though visually (the north gear box) didn't look like it was bad or anything was wrong, we wanted to have the manufacturer look at it and make sure that was the case," he said.

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Everything looks good, and he said he wanted to do the re-installation now to get ahead of the spring boating season that starts in April.

He expects Monday's installation to be simple, unless bad weather hits. However, the forecast looks clear and he said they "should be in pretty good shape to get it Monday through Wednesday."

"(After that,) it should be business as usual until they take that bridge out of commission," McDowell said.

Separate from its current repairs, city staff, council and various commissions are in the process of choosing an option to replace the bridge, which the DOT has identified as "nearing its service life." According to the DOT's website, construction is scheduled for summer 2028. City staff have until then to make a decision, which they started debating in 2017, according to previous Oshkosh Northwestern reporting.

For updates and traffic impacts, visit projects.511wi.gov/maintain-ne/schedule.

Contact Daphne Lemke at dlemke@gannett.com or follow her on Twitter at @daphlemke.

Contact Katy Macek at kmacek@thenorthwestern.com or 920-426-6658. Follow her on Twitter @KatherineMacek.

This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: DOT: Oshkosh's Jackson/Oregon Street bridge will close to install part