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All Lanes of Jefferson City Bridges Now Open

Paul Sableman
/
Flickr

All lanes of Route 54 and Highway 63 on the Missouri River Bridge in Jefferson City are now open. The Missouri Department of Transportation opened the eastbound side of the bridge Sunday afternoon and the westbound side of the bridge Friday. Construction on the bridge began May first. 

MoDOT Central District Construction and Materials Engineer Patty Lemongelli said residents have been inconvenienced enough and MoDOT is glad the bridge is reopened.

Lemongelli said MoDOT expected the lanes to reopen Monday morning at 6 a.m. but the contractors were able to get enough work done over the weekend to reopen the bridge Sunday.

However, Lemongelli said there is still some work to be done on the bridge. The contractor will continue to perform repairs during non-peak travel time. MoDOT’s plan is to close one lane in the west bound direction during further repairs. Lemongelli said she does not expect any delays to occur.

“The bridge was built in 1955”, Lemongelli said, “it was time to basically give it a new coat of paint.”

Lemongelli said, “What I would consider a roadblock is when we encountered areas that we determined required structural repair that we originally didn’t anticipate.”

This project would have taken four months. However, since the contractors found structural issues, the project took six and a half months to complete.