It was closed. Then it was open. Now it’s closed again. I-29 has been the subject of a lot of talk between the Iowa and Missouri transportation departments. Elaine Justus of MODOT tells us the river has not been as predictable as they’d like.

“The Iowa DOT in monitoring the floodwater noticed it wasn’t rising as fast as they thought it would, so they rescinded that closure, and so did we” Justus said.

By 2:30 Wednesday afternoon, the interstate was closed again, in both directions, between Rock Port, Missouri and Hamburg, Iowa.

Closing the interstate had some unintended consequences. Traffic from I-29 was detoured onto US-136 Wednesday. But for motorists trying to cross the river into Nebraska , there was another delay.

Maintenance work on the Brownville bridge left one lane restricted, and that created a huge backlog. Motorists were warned to expect additional delays of about thirty minutes while waiting to cross the bridge.

Some motorists have already tried sneaking around barricades, and he warned crews erecting flood barriers along the closed interstate near Hamburg, Iowa to watch out for those motorists.