According to information from Nebraska Department of Transportation, traffic on Highway 97 South of Valentine will be affected by a bridge restriction on the North Loup River Bridge at mile marker 92 North of Mullen in Cherry County. This structure has had a failure and officials are recommending limiting the traffic over the bridge to local traffic only. Today they will be setting up closures in Mullen and at the Brownlee turn off to limit the bridge to one lane traffic at 35 mph and no loads including trailered vehicles and any loading of any kind other than a slow-moving car for now. For today the status is a one lane bridge with traffic yielding to oncoming vehicles. Officials have discussed the concern with the local ranchers and will be reaching out to law enforcement and commuters he knows use this bridge daily.
It is a timber structure, timber deck and the cap has cracked and rotated but somewhat in place. They will plan to post something south of Merritt of a road closure thirty some miles ahead to allow lake traffic but not through traffic and asking the local law enforcement in Cherry County to enforce it. Again that is the Highway 97 bridge over the North Loup River North of Mullen in southern Cherry County.