COLUMBIA - Get ready.
Work to replace the Interstate 70 bridges at Business Loop 70, Garth Avenue and Rangeline Street is set to begin Aug. 24. Signs alerting motorists to that fact will start to go up next week.
Although there will be only a few temporary overnight lane closures of I-70 during construction, traffic is expected to move slower through the construction area. That's why Missouri Department of Transportation officials want local travelers to begin thinking about alternate routes they can take to avoid this stretch of the interstate for the next year or so.
"The project was designed to minimize traffic impacts, but it's still a good idea for local traffic to find other ways to get around the construction," said Travis Koestner, assistant district engineer for MoDOT's Central District.
Koestner said the contractor, Emery Sapp and Sons, along with partner Parsons Transportation Group, submitted an aggressive design and construction proposal to keep traffic disruptions to a minimum. That includes completing the project in just more than a year, as well as building several of the new bridges next to the existing structures and sliding them into place.
"There comes a time when needed work has to be done, and that's the case with replacing these aging bridges," Koestner said. "We know the work will cause some inconveniences, but we plan to do all we can to keep those to a minimum."
The bridges, which carry an average of about 80,000 vehicles a day, were built in 1957 and are in poor condition, but safe for travel.
The $18 million design-build project also includes building new roundabouts on the north and south sides of I-70 at the Business Loop 70/West Boulevard interchange and at Rangeline to move traffic better and faster.
The project is scheduled to be complete by Oct. 1, 2016.
For more information and to sign up to receive weekly e-mail updates, visit www.modot.org/ColumbiaBridges.