Work to start August 8 on new Route 47 bridge

By Ed Pruneau, Record Staff Writer

Posted 4/7/16

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Work to start August 8 on new Route 47 bridge

Posted Thursday, April 7, 2016 1:00 am

By Ed Pruneau, Record Staff Writer

Construction of the new Highway 47 Missouri River bridge should begin early next month, according to a Missouri Department of Transportation official.Judy Wagner, MoDOT area engineer for Franklin and Jefferson counties, said the target date for the contractor to start work at the site is Monday, Aug. 8.“We will do a groundbreaking before the Aug. 8 date,” Wagner told members of the Washington Area Highway Transportation Committee Monday.She said MoDOT will install a pole near the southwest side of the old bridge where a camera will be mounted to record the work on the project. That should go up soon, Wagner added.Earlier this month, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission awarded the bridge contract to Alberici Constructors Inc. on a bid of $62,950,000.MoDOT officials and Alberici representatives held a post-award meeting last week to discuss the project and possible ways to reduce the overall cost of the major project, Wagner said.“We discussed the history of how the new bridge came to be and the involvement from the community in the bridge aesthetics selection,” Wagner told The Missourian. A chief topic at the meeting was value engineering proposals, Wagner told the committee.More than 80 ideas were discussed, but the primary design features on the new bridge “will remain,” Wagner said. Virtually everything is “on the table” for discussion, she said, noting that one of the biggest expenses will be the price of steel.Rusty BeamAt the start of the discussion Bob Zick, chairman of the Highway 47 Bridge Committee, played “show and tell,” by displaying a rusted section of steel beam that was removed from the current bridge during repair work a number of years ago.It was the same rusted beam that the committee used, along with a series of photos showing the deteriorated condition of the old bridge, in the effort to secure support and funding for the project to replace the 80-year-old structure now spanning the river.“This was one of the main pictures that helped us convince the state that we needed a new bridge,” Zick remarked. “Had the committee not pushed that, we’d be years behind,” said Bill Straatmann, transportation committee chair.Wagner said it still has not been determined whether the contractor will utilize parts of Washington’s Rotary Riverfront Trail to transport and store equipment and materials on the south side of the river.She said it’s likely the trail will be closed sometime in early August.The first work residents will see will be clearing work and development of staging areas, followed by drilling work in the river for new piers.The project calls for a new 2,560-foot-long bridge to be built just to the west — upstream — from the existing span which was completed in 1936.The new structure is designed with two 12-foot driving lanes, two 10-foot shoulders and a 10-foot-wide biking/walking 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.The new bridge path will connect to a biking/walking path along Highway 47, north of the river, which ties into the state’s Katy Trail, one of the longest continuous bicycle trails in the United States.The new bridge, designed by HDR, Inc., will have a 100-year life with limited maintenance and a variety of unique enhancements including variable depth, haunched steel girders and fluted bridge piers with architectural reveals.The new bridge is scheduled to be open to traffic by November 2018.Demolition of the old bridge and finishing touches on the project will be completed in 2019.This will be Alberici’s third major bridge project for MoDOT in the last five years.Alberici joint ventures recently constructed the Interstate 70 Stan Musial Veterans Memorial bridge over the Mississippi River, and the Interstate 40/64 Daniel Boone bridge project, downstream from the new Route 47 Bridge site on the Missouri River.

Missourian photo.

Work to start August 8 on new Route 47 bridge

Work to start August 8 on new Route 47 bridge

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Work to start August 8 on new Route 47 bridge

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Work to start August 8 on new Route 47 bridge