Black Hawk Bridge painting project now complete after nearly four months

by B.J. Tomlinson

The Tarpon Industries painting crew from Florida that worked on the Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing all summer has recently left the area after completion of the project during the first week of October, but Anthony Saroukos, an owner of the company, said several of the crew members have expressed a desire to return to Lansing to visit. And some of the locals said they'd visit the workers in Florida, too.
Saroukos said the friendly townspeople, shopkeepers and mayor helped create a wonderful experience even though the crew found themselves in what they called "the middle of nowhere". The crew's previous painting project was in Moline, IL and the next one will be in Duluth, MN.
The 20 or so professional workers who were in Lansing since mid-June were from several states in addition to Florida. Most have many years of experience and evidently didn't mind the heat, paint fumes or long hours. They worked seven days a week from dawn  until dusk - unless it rained. And they were nice enough to depart the area during Fish Days to make room for visitors, not an easy feat considering the amount of equipment that had to be packed up and stored, and then reassembled a few days later.
Saroukos said the approximately $4.2 million project was completed on time according to all State requirements and specifications. The painting project consists of several steps in addition to safety rigging and inspections.
He said the first step in the process is sand blasting using an abrasive magnetic steel grit material that runs through a special recycling unit. The same unit vacuums up the debris, separates the steel grit from the dirt, rust, pebbles, bird droppings, etc., and then reuses the cleaned grit for continued blasting. When the blasting is complete the unit deposits all the vacuumed material into drums which are then sent to the State for disposal according to EPA standards.
After the blasting, an undercoating of zinc-based paint primer is applied, followed by the top coat and then a final urethane coat for UV protection. Saroukos said he thought the bridge was painted 20 years ago, and this paint job is expected to last another 20 years.
Justin Shepard of Sweeney's on the River said their business, as well as many other businesses in Lansing, benefited financially from the presence of the painting crew, but the biggest positive was the friendship that developed between the crew and the local residents. Shepard said the crew and the Tarpon Industries owners were "great people" and expects to see them again. Sweeney's hosted a party for the crew prior to their departure and 35 or 40 patrons turned out to say their good-byes.
Lansing Mayor Mike Verdon agreed that the painting crew had a positive financial impact on the town. "There were no negative incidents or complaints and the bridge looks great," he said. Verdon felt the townspeople were patient and cooperative and that they should all be proud of the community's unique, classic bridge.
The residents of Lansing, although somewhat inconvenienced this summer, didn't grumble much about the project. Gail Terwilliger, a Front Street resident, said the paint fumes and noise were rather annoying at times and the traffic was "unbelievable" - many times backed up on Second Street from the bridge back to Main Street and beyond. Cars sometimes had to wait 15 minutes through two or three traffic light cycles.
Despite that, Terwilliger said the process was interesting to see and quite different from the bridge painting project she witnessed back in the late 1950s. She said that at that time,  the Greek workers had no safety apparatus - no nets or harnesses - and painted with a brush and pail while balanced precariously on the structure. The floor of the bridge had not even been placed yet.
She was about 13 at the time, and became friendly with one of the workers named Artie. The night before he left to return to Greece, they went for a walk, held hands and he kissed her on the cheek. She shared that a few weeks later she received a marriage proposal from him.
A commuter from De Soto, WI, who requested anonymity, said the only adjustment she had to make during the project was to remember to visit the restroom before leaving home, in case of a lengthy delay. She also said she somehow feels "safer" now that the bridge has been painted; it just appears to be well-maintained.
Residents are wondering why the bridge didn't open when the crew left Friday, October 4. Nobody was there working but the traffic lights were still on, requiring another couple days of one-way traffic. The answer is simply that the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) needed to paint the yellow line separating the traffic lanes that following Monday.
The J.F. Brennan Company from La Crosse, WI is still working near the bridge, constructing a new dolphin and modifying the existing one; the dolphins protect the bridge supports from errant barges. The good news about the dolphin project is that there are no traffic delays. The bad news is that there will continue to be loud pounding for about another week. A company representative says the project should be completed by mid-November.