The bridge to Grey Cloud Island is now closed due to flooding from the Mississippi River.

The Grey Cloud Trail Bridge is one of only two ways on and off the island.

The city expects it to stay closed for the rest of this week and likely into next week.

The Grey Cloud Island Causeway remains open but the closure of the bridge means a long detour for people who live and work on the island.

“We have to do this every five to ten years for high water, just for safety reasons. Once it gets close enough to the bridge, within a foot, we do close it and detour traffic around,” said Ryan Burfeind, public works director for the City of Cottage Grove.

The bridge to Grey Cloud Island goes over the backwaters of the Mississippi River, just upstream from Lock and Dam #2.

“Once that dam hits a certain point, which for us was last week, then it really starts to come up, so we saw several feet of rise in just a few days. Right now, we’re about four feet higher than normal,” Burfeind said. “We do want people to be safe, right. It looks like it’s not that bad but this water is really moving and it’s really cold.”

The city does not expect to have to close the other road onto the island.

The last time both the bridge and causeway closed was in 2001.

Burfeind said the other area of flooding impact in Cottage Grove is the River Acres neighborhood, which backs up to the Mississippi River.

Bob Hansen has lived there for almost 50 years.

His backyard dock area is now underwater, including the stairs leading down from his deck.

“There will be a lot of eroding and repairs we’ll have to make here on the lawn,” Hansen said.   

By Monday afternoon, the Mississippi River at Hastings was at 18.9 feet, which is nearly a foot above ‘major flood stage.’

The National Weather Service predicts it will rise another five inches before cresting Wednesday night.

“Unfortunately, this crest is going to be pretty long. It looks like it will continue into this week and then slowly go down,” Burfeind said.

Burfeind urges people to stay away from the flooding, especially near parks and bridges. “Everyone wants to come down to check out the river, see how high it is, but we do want people to follow what we have in place and make sure everyone’s staying safe,” Burfeind said.