Motorists who like to take Freeborn County Road 19 will have to go another way starting Monday.

Contractor Minnowa Construction of Harmony will begin working on removing the 104-foot timber bridge over the Shell Rock River at the outlet of Albert Lea Lake, according to the Freeborn County Highway Department. The bridge — often called the Jugland Bridge — is held up with old timber pilings, and engineers have concerns about rotting wood.

A new 120-foot, three-span, concrete-slab bridge will take its place. The contract price tag is $720,000, paid mainly with bridge bonding funds.

County 19 is also South Shore Drive.

The bridge replacement had been the subject of much controversy last year — particularly in September and October — as Shell Rock River Watershed District officials had intended to partner with the county government on a joint bridge-dam project.

On Oct. 7, the Freeborn County commissioners on a 3-2 vote shot down that plan after a heated and emotional public hearing, even though in January 2007 they unanimously favored drawing up plans for a bridge-dam. In October, the opposing commissioners said they were nearing a separate deal for the 86-year-old dam with new adjacent landowner Greg Jensen. That deal remains to be unveiled.

County Engineer Sue Miller had told county and watershed leaders that if the bridge-dam project fails, the county needed to pursue replacing the bridge without a new dam. The creosote had worn off the timber pilings supporting the County 19 bridge at the lake’s outlet and the wood was rotting, she said in October.

The detour route for County 19 will be County 81, County 84 and County 26. The construction work should last about 2 1/2 months if there are no weather or material delays.