By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Emergency contracts have been let by the Missouri Department of Transportation in an effort to get traffic moving from northwest Missouri into Nebraska once again.
MoDOT Area Engineer Adam Watson says three contracts are being issued to repair flood damage which closed the Rulo bridge to traffic at Route 159 and the Brownville bridge at Route 136.
Watson emphasizes these contracts will make emergency, not permanent repairs.
“We’re not making it perfect by any means,” Watson tells St. Joseph Post. “The shoulders will still need more work. There will be more ditching and drainage work that’s going to be required. There’s going to be paving work that is going to be required. None of that is involved in these contracts. These contracts are, what do I have to do to make the road safe for cars to travel over it?”
Missouri River flooding overflowed homes, communities, and farmland in northwest Missouri. It also did great damage to roads and bridges, forcing MoDOT to close Interstate 29 to traffic just north of St. Joseph. Flooding destroyed I-29 pavement just across the state line in Iowa, disrupting the traffic flow north to Omaha, forcing 12,000 cars and trucks to find alternative routes north.
Re-opening the routes to Nebraska could allow I-29 to re-open farther north if repairs in Iowa drag on.
The flood did not damage either the Rulo or the Brownville bridge. It did, however, tear up pavement on the Missouri side, leading to the bridges.
MoDOT hopes to re-open the Rulo bridge by the first of June and the Brownville bridge by July first.
Phillips Hardy was awarded a $3 ½ million contract to remove debris and make emergency repairs to the pavement on US Route 159 in Holt County from a mile east of Route P near Fortescue to the Missouri River Bridge. The projected completion date is on or before June 1st.
Phillips Hardy also won another $3 ½ million emergency contract to repair damaged pavement on US Route 136 in Atchison County from I-29 to the Missouri River Bridge at Brownville, Nebraska.
Repairs on 136 will take longer.
Floodwaters destroyed a bridge between I-29 and the Brownville bridge. Watson says there will have to be a detour around that smaller bridge over the Little Tarkio Creek.
“Right now, I think we’re looking at (Routes) 111 and 118 to get cars around that damaged bridge,” Watson says. “I think 111 still has water over parts of it today. So, that’s going to be a process for us.”
A third contract let to Phillips Hardy for approximately $1.2 million will repair the Little Tarkio Creek bridge with a completion date around the middle of July.
Watson describes the damage to that bridge as severe.
“The pictures show it sagging and concrete shouldn’t sag,” Watson says. “So, it was pretty telling.”
For more on the flood damage to northwest Missouri roads and bridges, click here for the special MoDOT web page.