Description & Significance

 The Poplar Bluff Viaduct (Bridge K0263) is a 1934 deck truss (129’) with seven steel stringer approach spans. The steel stringer spans include four 37’ spans, and one 38’, 39’ and 41’ span. The deck truss is a six-panel warren web truss. The bridge has a 45’ wide concrete deck, with a 32’ roadway and sidewalks cantilevered on both sides. There are concrete baluster railings on the edges of the sidewalks.

The award for the Poplar Bluff Viaduct was made to the Regenhardt Construction Company on June 16, 1934 for $58,650.41. Construction was completed later that year. The Poplar Bluff Viaduct is an integral part of the Poplar Bluff street system, crossing the Missouri Pacific Rail Road and the Black River. Funding for the viaduct came from the Hayden-Cartwright Act, an important New Deal era highway funding bill. Grade separation projects were an important component of the program and the Poplar Bluff Viaduct is technologically distinguished from many of the grade separations constructed because of the deck truss construction.

The Poplar Bluff Viaduct is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places under criteria A and C for local significance in transportation as an example of a New Deal funded grade separation and as an unusual example of a multi-span urban viaduct and for engineering as an example of a deck truss, an unusual truss in Missouri.

MoDOT’s Historic Preservation Section is now accepting proposals for the relocation and reuse of the bridge or its components until June 30, 2020. A proposal checklist is available MoDOT’s Free Bridges website (http://www.modot.org/freebridges/). Preservation covenants may accompany the bridge.