Engineers are beginning work on the Cimarron Street Bridge. An estimated 30,000 drivers use it every day. But for the past week it’s been shut down.

City engineers decided to close it after determining it wasn’t safe for traffic. But now they have to figure out how to fix the problem without the budget to do it.

The bridge at age 45 is starting to have aches and pains. Problems with the Cimarron Street Bridge began last year when state bridge inspectors discovered the piers that hold up the roadway were decaying. Then last Friday things got downright dangerous.

Now the city is working to shore up the bridge and get it open to traffic. 4 rods and inch in diameter and 32 feet long will hold the steel plates in place with thousands of pounds of tension. The compression should stop the process of decay.

City engineers want to assure motorists that use the bridge that it will be safe when it reopens.