Plans for the new Missouri River bridge at Washington are “still on track” for construction to begin this summer, a Missouri Department of Transportation official said.Judy Wagner, MoDOT area engineer, said Monday that no delays are anticipated from environmental issues and the timetable calls for bids to be opened in May and a contract awarded in June.The state has been given a variance regarding a pallid sturgeon spawning area along the river, so that won’t hold up the project, Wagner told members of the Washington Area Highway Transportation Committee.“We have everything we need” regarding environmental issues, Wagner said.Utility work is expected to begin this spring, possibly as early as March, she told the committee.MoDOT is planning to host an all-day bidding conference with contractors, she explained.The new bridge planned here is a “pretty straightforward” structure, so it should attract competitive bidders, she said.Because it will be located far enough west of the existing bridge, “it won’t impact the traffic flow,” Wagner said.During the initial phase of the project work will involve building dikes and constructing coffer dams in the river for drilling piers.That drilling work will take several months, Wagner noted.She mentioned that during that phase and throughout the project, video cameras will allow citizens to keep track of the work on their computers.The construction estimate for the project is roughly $48.7 million. The total cost is closer to $60 million with engineering and design work and right of way added in.The new bridge will have two 12-foot lanes, two 10-foot shoulders and a 10-foot-wide bike path along the west side. An overlook, where walkers and bikers can stop and view the river and cityscape, is proposed at the center bridge pier.Under the tentative construction schedule, the state hopes to have traffic on the new bridge by late 2018.MoDOT