Preliminary work was scheduled to begin Monday to replace a decaying bridge on Laguna Palma Road over the Boyd Branch of Plattin Creek near the St. Francois and Ste. Genevieve county lines south of Festus.
Gershenson Construction Co. in Eureka was awarded a $1,159,715 contract to replace the bridge. The company submitted the lowest of three bids for the project.
A federal grant will cover 80 percent of the cost for the design and construction, and the county will pay the remaining cost using funds from its share of a 1/2-cent countywide sales tax for road and bridge improvements, Jefferson County Public Works Director Jason Jonas said.
He said the span definitely needs to be replaced.
“It’s 47 years old and frankly was built in such a way that didn’t anticipate it would still be around 47 years later,” he said. “Our inspectors and inspectors from MoDOT (the Missouri Department of Transportation) both have looked at it and concluded that the superstructure – the area below the top deck but above the ground – is in poor condition. When it’s graded as going from fair condition to poor condition, it’s time to plan for a replacement.”
Jonas said the project also will include straightening out an “unnecessary” curve on Laguna Palma just south of Boyd Branch Road.
An estimated 170 motorists travel over the bridge each day, he said.
Jonas said the county will replace the bridge without diverting traffic while construction is ongoing, which given the remoteness of the area, would be problematic.
Instead, Jonas said, about 1/3 of the present structure will be torn down and traffic limited to a single, 12-foot lane while the new span is built alongside it. Temporary concrete barriers will be placed on the side of the current bridge to keep motorists on the surface.
When the new bridge is ready for traffic, the rest of the old one will be demolished.
Jonas said it shouldn’t be any problem sorting out the traffic flow in the single lane in the meantime.
“It’s a low traffic area to begin with, and it’s very flat, with good sight distances. There will be signs posted in each direction to yield to any other traffic,” he said. “I don’t think there will be any problems.”
Construction should be wrapped up in spring 2024, Jonas said.