Repairs starting this month on caved-in South 29th Street bridge
By Chris Fortune
City council members gave the green light to fix and upgrade a bridge at South 29th Street near Pickett Road, which has been closed to drivers since August.
The city council approved $257,785 for the repairs at Sept. 30’s meeting and entered into an agreement with St. Joseph contractor Sprague Excavating Company.
One of the main goals of the project is to replace the culvert pipe, a drainage pipe that allows water to run under surfaces, after it deteriorated.
“Unfortunately, we knew that the pipe was not in great shape,” Director of Public Works and Transportation Abe Forney said. “We just didn’t know it was in such bad shape.”
The culvert pipe is being made in Maryville, and the plan is for the city to begin excavating in the next couple of weeks before the pipe is ready.
“We’ve got to excavate down, and we’ve got to get everything in the base completely satisfactory before we put that road on there,” Forney said.
Once the pipe is placed, work will begin to repair the bridge, which will see some safety improvements.
“We’re going to widen that road out a little bit and put in crash guardrails and put in curbs and gutters,” he said. “So we’re going to have a good product once it’s all over.”
The widening of the bridge will make room for two 12-foot lanes and a sidewalk. Mark Wright has lived in the area for over 40 years, and he welcomes the changes.
“I think it’s great because I sit there and watch people walk in the street here because we don’t have sidewalks, and that would be a lot safer for the kids walking home from school, you know, every day,” he said. “The safety is a big thing for me.”
The excavation will begin this month, and then the streets department will lay the base for the road, which will settle over winter. Forney anticipates that the project will be completed in the spring.
“I don’t have an exact time frame because of weather permitting, but our street crews are pretty good,” he said. “They’ll get on it.”
