The Lake Today

Despite earlier estimates that it would take five to seven days to reroute Highway 5 traffic from the old Hurricane Deck Bridge onto a new span, Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) officials now say the road will only be closed for “15 or 20 minutes” once the new bridge is built.

Bob Lynch, MoDOT engineer, said the finalized plans for replacement of the aging structure calls for a new bridge to be built “about three feet west of the old bridge.”

“The contractor we hired (American Bridge Company of Overland Park, Kan.,) presented us with a plan that does not call for moving either structure,” he said. “So once the new bridge is built, the only thing that will need to be done to divert traffic onto it will be to hook the existing roadway up to the bridge surface and that only takes a few minutes.”

Lynch said earlier plans to use the existing bridge’s in-water support system were scrapped when MoDOT decided to accept the construction plans presented by the American Bridge Company. He said MoDOT had planned to use a construction process, instituted in Canada, which called for keeping the old bridge open to traffic while a new bridge was built onto temporary pilings. Then when the construction was completed, closing the roadway for five to seven days while the old bridge was dismantled and the new bridge was moved onto the old pilings. However, he said, that plan has been abandoned.

“That was the plan we were considering, but we were always open to other ways of handling the project, providing a contractor could come up with an alternate plan that was viable,” Lynch said.

He said MoDOT officials decided to award the contract to American Bridge Company because they presented a plan for constructing the bridge that would prevent the closing of Highway 5 for a lengthy period while staying within the structural requirements, time allotted for the project and the money constraints set by MoDOT.

The winning bid for the project was at $32.3 million, with the actual construction set to begin this spring and the opening of the new span scheduled for the following year.

“The construction company currently has subcontractors taking core samples and doing the necessary survey work to sink new pilings into the lake floor,” Lynch said. “We (MoDOT) are helping with that. Then once all those tests are complete the contractor will place forms in the Lake and get ready to start pouring the pilings. That phase of the project will begin late this spring.”

Lynch said, MoDOT plans to schedule a public forum to explain the changes the agency has made in its original construction plans within the next few weeks, although no specific date has been set at this time.

Lynch said although the new bridge will be constructed only a yard away from the current span, Missouri Highway 5 will remain open to traffic during the entire project and will only be closed “for a few brief minutes” when construction crews are ready to allow vehicles to cross over to the new span.

Built in 1934, the current Hurricane Deck Bridge is of the same “cantilevered deck truss” design as the Interstate 35 Bridge near Minneapolis, Minn., that collapsed during rush hour in 2007 killing 13 people and injuring 145.

Although the current Hurricane Deck Bridge was more than 75 years old, MoDOT did not plan to build a new bridge, but had announced, in 2006, that the structure would be “refurbished.” However, in Dec. 2010 the agency announced that while the old bridge was still safe for traffic it would be replaced.

At that time, Nicole Hood, MoDOT transportation project manager said, “As we considered the best use of transportation dollars, we determined that rehabilitation might only last 10 years and a replacement could have at least a 75 year lifespan. For the amount of money needed to rehab the bridge, we thought it would be best to find a way to replace it instead.”

The current Hurricane Deck Bridge was built by the Stupp Brothers Bridge and Iron Company of Wisconsin. It carries Missouri Highway 5 across the main channel of Lake of the Ozarks in northern Camden County, just south of the Sunrise Beach city limits. Although the bridge and surrounding locale is referred to as “Hurricane Deck,” in fact, the area has never been incorporated as a city.

In 1936, the Hurricane Deck Bridge was named the first place winner of the “Class B award for the Most Beautiful Steel Bridge.”

The surface roadway of the current bridge is 2,280.3 feet long and measures 28 feet wide. The new bridge will measure approximately the same in length, but will include two 12-foot wide driving lanes with 7-foot wide shoulders on each side. The traffic count on the bridge is approximately 8,000 vehicles per day.