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Columbia Bridge Work to Close I-70

Ron McLinden
/
Flickr

Starting tonight, construction on Interstate 70 bridges at Rangeline Street, Business Loop 70 and Garth Avenue will leave one lane of I-70 open in each direction overnight from 9pm to 5am Monday through Friday. The bridges will remain open with two lanes in each direction during the day.

The bridges being replaced were in critical condition. Meaning that they required monthly inspections to make sure they were safe to drive on. It got to a point where it was more economically sensible to replace all of the bridges instead of doing monthly maintenance according to Senior Construction Inspector Chris Graham.

“The bridges were built in the late 50’s and are just deteriorated to a point in which rehab or repair is just not economical,” Graham said. 

The location of these bridges played a key factor into prioritizing these bridges being replaced over other critical condition bridges throughout the state Graham also said.

Traffic is not expected to be affected too much by the construction.

“The contractor, Emory Sapp and Sons has provided a good plan to reconstruct the bridges to where most of the work will be performed outside of traffic,” Graham said.

The overall project is expected to cost about $18 million in total. The project also includes building new roundabouts on the north and south sides of I-70 at the Business Loop 70W/West Boulevard interchange and at Rangeline.

It is scheduled to be completed by October 1, 2016.

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