LANSING, Iowa — Crews have completed beefing up ferryboat landings at Lansing and across the Mississippi River in Wisconsin. Starting Monday a 12-vehicle ferry service begins to carry traffic from the tottering and condemned 1930-vintage Black Hawk bridge. The ferry can handle 700 vehicles a day in 15-minute crossings. Bottlenecks are expected. The bridge typically had 2,00 daily crossings. The ferry, called the Pride of Cassville, was never designed as a ferry. Actually it’s a barge strapped alongside a tug for the seasonal tourist crossings at $20 a vehicle out of Cassville. Now it’s under contract for free passage for motorists who otherwise would be on Iowa Route 9 and Wisconsin Route 82 approaches over the river at Lansing. Most days the ferry is scheduled from 5:30 a.m. to 9:15 p.m. Service will be abbreviated on holidays Also, the ferry won’t run when the Black Hawk Bridge is dynamited, tentatively in mid-December.
Ferry path. A 10-minute trip under the Black Hawk bridge. The replacement for the aging bridge is expected to be operational in the spring of 2027.
Twelve-vehicle limit. No buses, no oversize motorhomes.
Pride of Cassville. Home port 60 miles downriver on Wisconsin side.