The Lake Today

At a meeting last week, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) asked for the community’s help in scheduling the replacement of two bridges on Missouri 17 near Tuscumbia.

According to MoDOT engineer Bob Lynch, although attendance at the July 12 public hearing on the Saline Creek Bridge replacement project was light, enough Miller County residents attended that the transportation agency’s goals were accomplished.

“There were about 30 people that showed up, but they included county officials, local residents and some farmers in the area,” Lynch said. “So we were able to get a real feel about how closing Missouri 17 is going to affect the community.”

Lynch said there are two aging bridges on Missouri 17, just outside of Tuscumbia scheduled for replacement next year, and MoDOT is considering doing both projects at the same time.

“If the community agrees, we would only have to close Missouri 17 once,” Lynch said.

The first bridge scheduled for replacement is the 86-year-old Saline Creek Bridge, located 3.2 miles north of Missouri 52 near Tuscumbia, is scheduled for replacement under MoDOT’s 2011-15 STIP (Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan). The second bridge is a much smaller span over Dog Creek. Built in 1926, the bridge is also located on Missouri 17, but is approximately six miles south of Tuscumbia or one and onehalf miles south of the southern Missouri 52 and 17 junction in the direction of Iberia.

The Dog Creek Bridge is part of MoDOT’s $600 million Safe and Sound Bridge Project designed to replace or repair 802 aging bridges around the state in five years.

Lynch said since both the Saline Creek and Dog Creek bridges are scheduled for replacement in 2012, MoDOT officials are considering the possibility of scheduling both projects for the same time period thereby reducing the amount of time Missouri 17 would be closed to traffic.

“The two projects are only a few miles apart, and if we do both projects at the same time, it could reduce the amount of time that Missouri 17 traffic will have to be detoured,” Lynch said. “We have asked the (Miller) County Commission to talk with their constituents and find out how they feel about the idea.”

Lynch said if MoDOT receives enough positive feedback the projects will be scheduled to start “sometime after June 15, 2012,” and should not require the highway to be closed for more than three months.

The current Saline Creek Bridge, which handles more than 1,000 vehicles per day, is a two-lane, 20-foot wide, 288-feet long span built in 1925 by Fogleman and Davidson contractors. Designed as a “riveted, six-panel Pratt through truss bridge” with approaches on both ends, the bridge’s condition is currently rated as structurally deficient by both bridge hunter.com and historicbridges.org. The new bridge design will add eight feet to the width of the roadway and will have side railings instead of the overhead steel structure of the current bridge.

Traffic that normally uses this portion of Missouri 17 to travel to Tuscumbia and beyond will be detoured back to U.S. 54, then south to the Missouri 52 junction and back to Tuscumbia.

The current Dog Creek Bridge is the oldest concrete bridge in Miller County. It has a 20-foot roadway, is 170-feet long and is of the “concrete T-beam fixed structure” design.

During construction traffic that normally use Missouri 17 to travel between Tuscumbia and Iberia will follow a detour that utilizes routes A and PP and Missouri 52.

The Safe and Sound Bridge Project includes the replacement and/or repair of 17 bridges in the three-county Lake Area, including seven in Camden County, six in Morgan County and four in Miller County.

The Spencer Creek Bridge on Route D in Camden County — just west of the road leading to the spring picnic area in Ha Ha Tonka State Park and part of the Safe and Sound Bridges Project — is currently under construction and expected to open by the end of this month.

The Soap Creek Bridge, on Missouri 5 near Gravois Mills in Morgan County, scheduled for replacement this fall, is also part of the Safe and Sound Bridge Project.

The $25 million replacement project for the Hurricane Deck Bridge, that carries Missouri across the main channel of the Lake near Sunrise Beach, is scheduled to begin next year. The Hurricane Deck is not part of the Safe and Sound Bridge Project but is listed on MoDOT’s 2011-15 STIP. A townhall-type public hearing is scheduled for that project from 4-6:30 p.m. July 28 at the Sunrise Beach Fire Protection District Administrative Building, 30 Porter Mill Springs Road, in Sunrise Beach.

The public may attend the hearing at any time during the advertised hours to speak with MoDOT staff and provide comments. No formal presentations will be made. The meeting location is accessible to persons with disabilities.

MoDOT has proposed an innovative method of replacing the Hurricane Deck Bridge, which would maintain traffic on Missouri 5, with only shortterm closures to establish temporary roadway tie-ins and to move either the newly constructed bridge or the existing structure.

Some temporary construction easements will be needed for the bridge replacement.

For more information about any of the bridge replacement and repair projects in the Lake Area log on to www.modot.mo.gov.