Dent County Commission shared an update on the Standing Rock Bridge project in Thursday’s meeting. An email was distributed that was received from Preston Kramer, Meramec Area Engineer, Missouri Department of Transportation - Central District St. James.
The email from April 2 stated:
“We wanted to give you two an update on the revised Standing Rock Bridge Project. I've copied the Dent County Commission on here as well.
We would have liked to have provided this update earlier, but the revised plans required the acquisition of additional right of way and those contract negotiations just completed. Since these revised plans were contingent upon acquiring the additional right of way, we felt it would have been irresponsible to share much beforehand.
As you are aware, our customers in the Dent/Shannon County area were not pleased with the project as proposed as it required the use of a signed detour for the 45-calendar day bridge closure on routes they felt were not up to handling Route 19 traffic for this timeframe. This sentiment was voiced by many at the Public Meeting we held in Salem last fall and by others that submitted comments virtually. The revised plans do not make use of a signed detour.
We have shifted the bridge over so that the existing Route 19 bridge will remain open to traffic while the contractor builds half of the new bridge off to the side. Once half of the new bridge is constructed and the roadway tie-ins are in place (which we will do under traffic), we will transfer traffic to the new bridge. As this will only be half of a new bridge, we will have traffic signals in place to direct one direction of traffic across the bridge at a time. During this phase, we will demolish the existing bridge and then build the second half of the new bridge. Route 19 will remain open to traffic for the entire duration of the project.”
