improve access to I-29 from the southern parts of the Omaha metropolitan area. Both agencies sought to create free flowing traffic movement between US 75 and I-29. There were two Missouri River crossings in the project area, the Plattsmouth Bridge and the Bellevue Bridge—which carried Nebraska Highway 370 (N-370) and Iowa 370—that required traffic to pass through populated areas in order to move from US 75 to I-29. Neither the Plattsmouth Bridge nor the Bellevue Bridge at wide, respectively, met the functional requirements of traffic projections for the year 2030. Both the Iowa DOT and NDOR had plans to replace one of the two bridges, but a change in funding forced the agencies to combine resources to build one new bridge. The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis on August 1, 2007, brought bridge safety to the national forefront. Inspections of the Plattsmouth and Bellevue Bridges determined that both bridges were among the least safe in Iowa. In 2007, the bridge was sold to the City of Plattsmouth for $1. The city created a commission to operate and maintain the bridge. The move from private to public ownership allowed money from the Iowa DOT and NDOR to be used to restore the bridge. The bridge closed for $3.2 million (equivalent to $ in ) of rehabilitation work on April 21, 2008. Work included repairing the bridge deck and piers and installing new guardrails and lighting. The bridge reopened on November 9, 2008. At the time, it was hoped that the repairs would allow 20 to 25 years of continued use, though a new US 34 bridge would mean that heavy truck traffic could be moved off of the Plattsmouth Bridge. Officials from the Iowa DOT and NDOR agreed that once a new bridge between Bellevue and Plattsmouth was built, the US 34 designation would be pulled from the Plattsmouth Bridge and applied to the new bridge. Construction of the new bridge began in 2010. While earthwork farther inland could take place, no work at the river could take place between February and June because the crossing was located in the spawning zone of the rare pallid sturgeon. Any vibrations from construction could disrupt breeding. Crews were also halted between June and September 2011 because major flooding inundated the work zone. When construction resumed, it was estimated that only five percent of work had been completed. The delays pushed back