Eureka has put the long-awaited Allenton Bridge replacement project on hold due to higher-than-expected estimated construction costs.
Mayor Sean Flower said in a statement on Oct. 29 that the city received one bid for the bridge replacement project the was significantly higher than the $9 million estimated cost by the design firm TranSystems Corp. of St. Louis.
The bidding contractor KCI Construction Company of St. Louis estimated the actual cost to be approximately $18 million, $11 million more than the city accounted for in this year’s budget.
Since 2019, Eureka has worked with engineers to design a new, safer bridge crossing the Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern Railroad tracks. The bridge connects several Eureka subdivisions along West Main Street with Hwy. 66 and the I-44 on-ramp.
The city needed to gain approval from the Missouri Department of Transportation and the two railroad companies to begin construction.
The city intended to use a mixture of Proposition E funding, federal grants and proceeds from the sale of the water and sewer system to Missouri American Water to cover the costs.
Prop E was approved by voters in 2018 to fund public safety-related uses, which included the bridge project.
According to the 2024-2025 city budget, Eureka had budgeted $7,000,250 for the bridge project, which would have been offset by a $3.4 million East-West Transportation Improvement Program grant.
Flower said it wasn’t enough.
“Based on our estimates, and our funding sources the city anticipated that we were in good shape to move forward this year on bidding and construction of the bridge,” Flower said. “The bridge plans were reviewed by many qualified contractors, but at the end of the process, we only received one bid, in the amount of $16.5 million. In addition to this amount, there is approximately $1.5 million in additional soft costs that they did not include in the bid.
“We subsequently checked with other contractors and attempted to look at other value engineering options, but ultimately found that the cost we received was generally accurate.”
The Eureka Board of Aldermen in June 2023 approved paying TranSystems Corp. a total of $1,960,229 for engineering design services, utility coordination and utility relocation staking for the Allenton Bridge.
Flower said the cost estimate from KCI is “far beyond” what the city anticipated.
“I understand and fully acknowledge that there are many residents who will be significantly impacted if the bridge is not replaced,” he said. “I am also extremely frustrated and disappointed by this result as we want to fix the problem as well. There is a tremendous amount of work to get to this point, and it’s extremely frustrating when cost estimates vary so greatly from reality, although when dealing with railroad work the uncertainty is certainly a huge and hard-to-estimate cost.”
The new bridge was to be built west of the current bridge and would have four lanes for traffic and a dedicated pedestrian lane.
The Allenton Bridge replacement would open a large swath of land, about 80 acres, for community development. It would also add a more suitable secondary access point for emergency service vehicles and residents in the Ashton Woods and the Legends subdivisions, Flower said.
The Allenton Bridge was built in 1928. The bridge fell under Eureka’s care after the city of Allenton was annexed in 1985. MoDOT gave the bridge a sufficiency rating of 2 out of 100 in a 2015 inspection.
What’s next?
Flower said the bridge will remain operational in its current state and that MoDOT inspects it for safety every year. He said the city will keep the bridge operational within MoDOT’s recommendations.
In December, the Board of Aldermen approved a temporary traffic signal to be installed on West Main Street near Allenton Road, ensuring that only one vehicle drives across the bridge at a time.
Flower said the city is exploring other options for funding the bridge replacement, including applying for state government grants.
“The city will continue to work on this issue, but there was enough certainty with the situation that I wanted to give you the facts and full story, even though it is bad news, and I do not have a clear plan to present as an alternative,” Flower said. “We will keep you updated as we continue to work on the issue.”