Interstate 70 Bridge Rehabilitation in St. Charles

REMINDER: MoDOT to close Bryan Road bridge over Interstate 70 starting Monday, June 17

ST. CHARLES COUNTY – The Missouri Department of Transportation will close the Bryan Road bridge over Interstate 70 Monday, June 17. All work is weather permitting. 

Both the northbound and southbound direction of Bryan Road over I-70 will be closed for bridge rehabilitation. 

Crews will be accelerating the work on the Bryan Road bridge to potentially shorten the closure duration. The bridge is expected to reopen by mid-August. 

During this closure, the I-70 ramps will remain open. Bryan Road traffic will be detoured to I-70 to make a U-turn at either Lake St. Louis Boulevard or Route K/Main Street. I-70 lanes at the Bryan Road bridge will also be closed during off-peak times for bridge painting. 

The Bryan Road bridge rehabilitation includes partial removal and replacement of the bridge driving surface, removal, and replacement of the bridge approaches, and replacing the bridge expansion joints. 

MoDOT holds Interstate 70 and Bryan Road bridge open-house style public meeting Wednesday, May 22 

The Missouri Department of Transportation will hold an informational open-house style public meeting about the ongoing rehabilitation of 12 Interstate 70 bridges, including sharing information about an upcoming closure of the Bryan Road bridge on Wednesday, May 22 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The public meeting will be held at the O’Fallon City Hall multi-purpose room located at 100 Main Street, O’Fallon, MO 63366. No formal presentations will be made during the open house-style meeting. Attendees can stop by at any time during the meeting to view the project details and speak with representatives from MoDOT and the contractor. 

Starting in early June, Bryan Road over I-70 will be closed in both directions for bridge rehabilitation. The bridge is tentatively scheduled to reopen in mid-August. The I-70 ramps will remain open. Bryan Road traffic will be detoured to I-70 to make a U-turn at either Lake St. Louis Boulevard or Route K. I-70 lanes at the Bryan Road bridge will also be closed during off-peak times for bridge painting. 

What is the problem?

This bridge rehabilitation project consists of work on 12 bridges along Interstate 70 in St. Charles County. Work will consist of repairing areas of deteriorated concrete, replacing the bridge driving surface, replacing joints and repainting the steel girders. Additionally, once the bridge work is complete, I-70 between Route K and Mid Rivers Mall Drive will be resurfaced, including guardrail upgrades and new pavement markings/striping.

Many of the bridges along the Interstate 70 corridor between Route K and the Spencer Creek in St. Charles County are between 30 and 70 years old and need significant maintenance or reconstruction to ensure that they remain operational and safe to use for the future.

Many of the bridges along the corridor need work, and in this case, it is more efficient to do several of them at a time to minimize the overall impact to commuters and to give the contractor doing the work the ability to efficiently manage the equipment and construction teams needed to complete the project.

Eight bridges on I-70 from Route K to Spencer Creek will have lane closures with staged construction work.

Three other bridges on Route 79 near I-70 will consist of lane closures, including the closure of the northbound lanes of the bridge over I-70.  

The Bryan Road bridge over I-70 will involve a full closure of the bridge. 

Which bridges will undergo rehabilitation?

The list of the bridges includes:

• I-70 at Bryan Road- Full closure of the Bryan Road bridge over I-70.  The I-70 ramps will remain open.  Through traffic for Bryan Road will be detoured to I-70 to U-turn at Lake St. Louis Blvd. or Route K.  Lanes will also be closed on I-70 during off-peak times for repainting the Bryan Road bridge.

• I-70 at K- Three I-70 lanes each direction remain open during the bridge rehab.  Lanes will be shifted and narrowed.

• I-70 at Belleau Creek (east of T.R. Hughes Blvd.) – Three I-70 lanes in each direction remains open during the bridge rehab.  Lanes will be shifted and narrowed and the Westbound exit only lane for Route K will be closed for the duration of the bridge work.

• I-70 at Route 79- rehab bridge- 

  One southbound lane will remain open on the bridge.  Northbound traffic on Salt Lick Road wishing to proceed north on Route 79 will be detoured to eastbound I-70 to U-turn at Mid Rivers Mall Drive.  Lanes will also be closed on I-70 during off-peak times for repainting the Route 79 bridge.

   

• Route 79 bridges over East Terra Lane & NSRR- One lane in each direction on 79 will remain open.  The on ramp to northbound Route 79 will close for a portion of the work.  Traffic will be detoured to East Terra Rd. to T.R. Hughes Blvd. to eastbound I-70 to access northbound Route 79.

• I-70 at Dardenne Creek- Four I-70 lanes each direction remain open during the bridge rehab.  Lanes will be shifted and narrowed. One lane will be closed each direction during the bridge rehab. Also, for safety, the eastbound I-70 on ramp from Salt Lick Road will have to close during the work at Dardenne Creek. Northbound traffic on Salt Lick Road wishing to proceed east on I-70 will be detoured to westbound I-70 to U-turn at T.R. Hughes Blvd. 

• I-70 at Spencer Creek (east of Spencer Road)- Four I-70 lanes remain open eastbound and five lanes will be open westbound during the bridge rehab.  Lanes will be shifted and narrowed. One lane will be closed each direction between Mid Rivers Mall Drive and Route 370 during the bridge rehab.

• I-70 North & South Outer Roads at Spencer Creek – One lane each direction will remain open during the bridge rehab.  Lanes will be shifted and narrowed.

What will the traffic impacts be?

MoDOT is working to mitigate the impacts to the traveling public as much as possible. I-70 is a major corridor for commercial and recreational traffic. MoDOT is also working in conjunction with our partners, including St. Charles County, and the cities of O’Fallon and St. Peters.

As the project gets closer to beginning, MoDOT will inform the public, the media and our partners the maintenance of traffic and construction impacts, including any full or partial closures of either interstate lanes or lanes on each impacted bridge. Drivers may want to consider alternate routes during the work, as congestion levels are expected to be high during construction due to the lane and ramp closures.

Will this work impact other projects along the I-70 corridor in St. Charles County?

There is potential for some conflicts with on-going projects scheduled during the same time period as the I-70 bridge rehabilitation project. These potential impacts include:

I-70 and Route K project (City of O’Fallon) Website link This project includes the construction of a Texas U-turn ramp under the interchange. This project is expected to be completed prior to the beginning of the MoDOT I-70 bridge rehabilitation project.