MUSCATINE, Iowa — Improvements are nearly complete and Clay Street should be reopened within a couple of weeks, city officials told the Muscatine City Council Thursday night.

But additional work will need to be done next year to the bridge on Clay Street, said Randy Hill, the Public Works Department director and interim city administrator, which has been deemed “very unsafe” to heavier loads.

The Council unanimously approved a funding transfer from the Northeast Tax Increment Fund for the Clay Street Improvement Project. The project began in August.

“Everyone’s been very cooperative,” Hill said. “The outside lane was poured [recently] and the concrete will cure in seven to 10 days. It should be open in a couple weeks.”

One concern is the bridge on Clay Street, which will have a temporary seven-ton limit, Hill said. Buckling steel beams and faults in the structure made it very unsafe, even since the start of the Clay Street renovation, Hill said.

Hill said another construction project will need to be started next summer on the bridge, costing an estimate $200,000-$250,000.

Hill said the weaknesses are so severe that asphalt trucks were not allowed on the bridge during the renovations, and few city vehicles, like fire engines or garbage trucks, would not be able to cross it if it continues to deteriorate.