The situation has improved enough on the Blue Earth River to allow for more assessment of the damaged Rapidan Dam, riverbanks, the County 9 bridge just up form the dam, as well as downstream bridges, but water flows are still strong and safely doing reconnaissance remains difficult.
On Tuesday, Bolton & Menk engineers were at the site to see if the dam had slid or rotated at all.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which licenses dams, also gave Blue Earth County permission to have county staff to go out on the deck of the dam to do inspections if needed. FERC already had sent its staff out on the deck to look for any major damage that might immediately jeopardize the dam.
The Sheriff’s Office took a boat to the downriver side of the dam and they were able to do some visual inspection and get partly into the inside of the dam, much of which is hallow, to take some photos. However, sediment kept them from doing too much exploring.
Whether the Highway 9 bridge can be repaired or if it will need to be replaced will not be known until water is much lower and inspection can be done. A 2021 estimate put a cost for replacing the bridge at about $8 million, but inflation would likely push that to the $10 million range.