Darrell Todd Maurina
Posted: Friday, July 31, 2009 1:40 pm

Construction ended last week on a project to repair the Spring Creek Bridge on Route K east of Fort Leonard Wood.

EDGAR SPRINGS, Mo. (July 31, 2009) — The first of several state bridge repair projects in the Fort Leonard Wood area was completed last week, Missouri Department of Transportation personnel announced Monday, and another bridge repair project in the same area should be finished later this summer.

The just-finished repairs on the Spring Creek bridge on Route K and the ongoing repairs to the Corn Creek bridge on Route M, both outside Fort Leonard Wood’s East Gate, are part of MoDOT’s $700 million “Safe and Sound” bridge repair project which has identified 802 bridges around the state which need to be repaired or replaced within the next five years. Both are among the first 100 “quick start” bridge projects that are expected to begin this year.

Another area bridge is also part of the “Safe and Sound” program but not the “quick start” portion planned to begin this year. Work will be done on the Route U bridge northwest of Crocker over an unnamed river branch, but construction hasn’t begun on that project and no dates have yet been announced for public meetings to explain the project and route detours.

The Spring Creek bridge work on Route K had originally been scheduled to start on May 18, but due to bad weather, it was delayed and began instead on May 26. Spanning 215 feet and carrying an estimated 591 cars per day, the bridge was built in 1958 and the deck replacement work by MoDOT contractor L. Krupp Construction took a total of 53 days to complete, finishing on July 24. That’s a week under the contract requirement of completion within 60 days.

The Corn Creek bridge deck replacement project on Route M by the same contractor began July 13 and traffic has been detoured along Route J to Route K. Work is expected to take about 45 days, MoDOT officials report, and will repair the 85-foot-long bridge which was built in 1956 and carries an estimated 1,345 cars per day.

The Corn Creek bridge contract for $310,000 and the Spring Creek bridge contract for $373,000 were both awarded by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission at its February meeting.

Both bridges are among 248 in Missouri identified as needing repair work but still in good enough condition that they can be rehabilitated rather than replaced, and in many cases contracts have already been awarded to local construction companies. Another 554 bridges have been scheduled for replacement and have been packaged into a single “design-build” contract for $487 million that was awarded to KTU Constructors and is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2013. The 31-foot Route U bridge, which was built in 1937, carries an estimated 1,344 cars per day and is part of the KTU contract.

Other upcoming Safe and Sound bridge repairs in the area include the Mill Creek Bridge on Highway 32, Walker Creek Bridge on Highway Z, and Mill Creek Bridge on Highway N, all in Laclede County to the southwest and west of Fort Leonard Wood; the Little Maries River Bridge over Highway BB in Maries County north of Dixon, and the Barnett Branch Bridge on Route A northwest of Crocker and Wet Glaize Creek Bridge on Route T west of Richland in Camden County. No construction dates have yet been announced for any of those projects.

So far, 66 bridges have been completed statewide, 24 are under construction, and work has yet to begin on 712 bridges, according to MoDOT reports.

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