“It’s gone,” said acting Minot Public Works Director Jason Sorenson. “It’s not going to be put back in place. That was always part of this phase of flood control. Once we put in the floodwall, then it cuts off access to that bridge on the north side.”

The floodwall is expected to be completed during this construction season.

The remains of the recently removed Eighth Street pedestrian bridge lie along 13th Street Southeast on Huwe property. Huwe the House Mover hauled away the metal following demolition, and company owner Kevin Huwe said the intent is to preserve the structure’s remains.

Huwe said Minot Park District, which contracted for the hauling, did not want the bridge. The bridge was too grand a structure to waste, so Huwe is considering repurposing the longer, 140-foot section by setting it up across a coulee on his private property. He said he is open to hearing from anyone who would want to use the shorter, 80-foot section, or even both sections, as long as the intent is to preserve them. He doesn’t want to see the metal scrapped.

Construction workers erect a portion of the floodwall in northeast Minot. The Eighth Street Northeast bridge was removed and will not be replaced because the floodwall will cut off access.

“They are just too cool,” Huwe said.

The bridge brings back memories for many, and even if not historical, it carries a lot of history. The North Dakota Historical Society estimates the Pratt through-truss bridge was constructed over the BNSF Railroad sometime between 1915 and 1930.

Sorenson said any replacement bridge would have to scale the floodwall and would need to meet accessibility requirements under the American with Disabilities Act. Rather than attempt a new bridge, the plan with the flood project’s design is to create a new shared use path that would take pedestrians about 1,500 feet to the west of the old bridge, where they can cross under the Third Street Northeast Bridge to get to downtown.

Northeast Minot resident Nikki Paulsen has been among those opposed to removing the Eighth Street Northeast bridge. She said children, including her own, have used the bridge to access the Roosevelt Park pool. With the flood buyouts, there no longer are homes on the north side from which children walk to Roosevelt School, but once Central Campus becomes a middle school, the need for a crossing could arise again, she said.

Paulsen said residents were told the proposed pedestrian route under the Third Street bridge would be upgraded before the Eighth Street bridge was removed, but it remains in disrepair. Her concern is pedestrians won’t walk to the west but will cut across the tracks.

“What’s going to happen is there will be kids walking across the railroad tracks,” Paulsen said. “It’s going to be an issue.”

Sorenson said the hope was to finish the alternate path before removing the bridge, but the timing of property acquisitions and construction with the flood project did not allow for it. He estimated it could be a year or two before that new path can be built.

However, there shouldn’t be a concern about dangerous pedestrian crossings over railroad tracks because the floodwall will serve as a barrier, he said.