MUSCATINE, Iowa — Muscatine residents didn’t celebrate the Fourth of July under the red, white and blue of Norbert F. Beckey Bridge, and now they won’t celebrate the holidays under its red and green glow.

Gary Carlson, co-chair of the Community Improvement Action Team, said during the committee’s meeting Tuesday that a project to install color-changing light-emitting diode fixtures on the bridge has been delayed again, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.

“You can say we’re still right on schedule,” Mayor Dick O’Brien said jokingly, referring to city staff’s expectations earlier this year that the lights would be installed in time for July 4.

“We just didn’t say what year,” Carlson said.

He said paperwork held up any work from starting on the project until after staff had hoped to celebrate its completion in conjunction with holiday activities on the riverfront or downtown.

Carlson said the most recent timeline indicates the lights will be installed by March 15, 2008. A schedule from the Department of Transportation that Carlson said Public Works Director Randy Hill passed on to him shows the DOT will let bids for the fixtures’ installation on about Nov. 20. The bids will not include the costs for the actual lights, which will be purchased and donated by Musco Lighting of Muscatine.

The estimated cost for the project is $390,000. The DOT provided a $100,000 grant, with Musco Lighting filling in the remainder of the costs with a $250,000 donation.

An installation contract will be awarded on about Dec. 6 and approved with bond on Dec. 20, Carlson said.

The lighting project was initiated in 2005 as a project of Leadership Muscatine, a leadership and community improvements class sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. That October, a public demonstration gave residents their first glimpse of the lighting system’s capabilities.

Individuals who have been involved in the project believe Norbert F. Beckey Bridge will

the first bridge spanning the Mississippi River to use the LED lights. The system is capable of more than 16 million color shades, which can be programmed to change individually or in concert.

Reporter contact information

Jennifer Meyer: 563-262-0525

jennifer.meyer@muscatinejournal.com