Two weeks ago, the Iowa Department of Transportation announced the bridge connecting Iowa and Wisconsin would shut down after movement in bridge supports was detected. The DOT estimated bridge repairs would take two months to make it safe to cross again.

“We don’t have any projects right now, but I know April 8 I’ll be back to work on the other side,” Olsen said. Olsen works for Steiger Construction and recently moved to Lansing, Iowa.

Living on the Iowa side of the river and working on the Wisconsin side, Olsen will have to add an extra hour of driving time to get to Ferryville, Wisconsin, for work. Normally, he would drive five minutes.

Olsen’s story can be heard all across Lansing. Employees, friends, deliveries, services and customers must make the extra hour commute or be cut off from the other side of the river.

“It’s kind of like waking up from a nightmare. We had a really nice city and county and it’s turned into a ghost town overnight, both socially and economically,” said Marlene Duffy, a retired teacher living in Lansing.

Jason Drape, owner of TJ Hunters Banquet Hall in Lansing, said a wedding was canceled and the couple scrambled to find a new location because most guests live on the Wisconsin side. The planners said they did not want to take a chance on whether the bridge would reopen in time.

The quietness of the river extends through Main Street, a major retail and social hub for the wider region.

At the end of Main Street, a Quillin’s grocery store is making hard adjustments to survive a dent in customers. Backroom staff are going home early and taking fewer shifts to account for less customers.

“We’re down at least 35% to 40% of our customers,” said Susan Finley, store manager. “The staff are all being real troopers and rising to the occasion on this. Nobody wants to take hours out, but we’ve all been sharing the load and taking it how we have to.”

Donna Stone, Nyla Bakewell and Vicky Miller all work in the back of Quillin’s. The trio accepted hour cuts and helped schedule when people will take cuts together. Miller said they’re all looking to help the grocery store stay afloat in any way possible.

“The closure affects my check but I’m still gonna help out where I can. I didn’t often before, but now I’m buying all my groceries here as long as this goes on,” Miller said.

The Quillen’s store in Viroqua, 30 miles away in Wisconsin, announced earlier this month it would close permanently.

Other Main Street businesses are not letting the bridge’s closure divide their work. Dave Janzen, co-owner of Hardware Hank in Lansing, still commutes to De Soto, Wisconsin, on Fridays to complete his jobs.

Dave Janzen’s wife and co-owner, Laurie Janzen, said he coordinates installations and delivery calls to one day across the river so he can complete his De Soto work with only one extra-long commute a week.

She added that her customers have also been down 30 to 50% from normal traffic. Dave Janzen said the business was fortunate the bridge closed before the start of the busy spring season.

“It really makes you think about all of the things you don’t normally think about that we need that bridge for,” said Maryann Baldwin, Hardware Hank customer and owner of a Lansing fitness center. “Emergency vehicles, doctor services, home construction, medications and all the things we don’t think of until this happens.”

Local officials are working to bring a ferry service to help workers cross the river without the extra commute. Once a ferry schedule is worked out and a small dock is built on the Wisconsin side, the planned ferry will take people back and forth from De Soto to Lansing.

The ferry will dock at the Lansing Marina and the Big Slough boat ramp at the base of Black Hawk Bridge. Cars will not be allowed on the ferry, only people.

A shuttle service will connect people from Big Slough to De Soto or the Lansing Marina to Lansing. The service will be free and officials are seeking commercial drivers to work the shuttles.

Hope still prevails in the newly quiet town. Andrew Boddicker, executive director of the Main Street Lansing Board, said the town is already gearing up for a big return once the bridge is repaired.

Lansing usually sees business come and go with outdoor recreation seasons. If the bridge is fixed by the estimated late-April target, it will be just in time for hunters, anglers and campers to use Lansing as a base camp.

“They say two months, but we have to be ready for longer than that,” Boddicker said. “We don’t know yet and they don’t know yet, and we gotta trust the system.”

Maryann Baldwin said the best practice is for people to shop local in their towns until the bridge is ready. She reflected back on the direness of the COVID-19 pandemic and what she sees in Lansing today.

Although muted, the bridge will return and ring in a new spring season. Black Hawk Bridge won’t need to hold out for very long once it is repaired.

Last year, the Iowa DOT began work on a replacement to the almost century-old bridge. The new bridge is expected to open in 2027 and that timeline has not been affected by repairs on the old bridge.