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Aug
2
Bridges
August 2, 2007 |
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that MoDOT will inspect 11 Missouri bridges with a design similar to the I-35 bridge in Minneapolis. So far they have not specified which 11 bridges, except for Route 5 over the Grand Glaize arm of the Lake of the Ozarks, which has exactly the same design as the Minneapolis bridge.
Meanwhile, the Springfield News-Leader has posted a database of Missouri Bridge inspection scores. The Minneapolis bridged was recently rated as 50 out of 120, higher than at least two local bridges.
- I-435 west: 96 out of 120
- Chouteau: 94
- Heart of America: 73
- Broadway: 62
- I-435 east: 55 and 62 (two bridges)
- Paseo: 55
- Fairfax: 49
- Platte Purchase: 42
Comments
21 Comments so far
I’m not sure I would like to be traveling over a bridge daily that has a score in the 50’s. I’m glad I live in the suburbs and do not travel over high bridges daily over water.
Chris, I’m glad I live in Downtown so that I don’t to drive at all.
Ditto on DTKC.
Plus most of the rush hour bridge traffic is people that live in the suburbs.
Now, I did have to drive across the Paseo Bridge to meet some friends not 10 minutes after I heard about the collapse Wednesday night. Needless to say that made me a little anxious.
Try your luck on Red Bridge. It rates a 2!! The crazy “friends of Red Bridge” managed to delay a new bridge until the new council was elected. They have great concerns that it look pretty!
Ooops, I’m sorry, it rates a 1!! Built in 1932!
This bridge list is rather shocking. Of course, I remember years ago during the Cleaver administration that Cleaver mentioned that the old Choteau bridge was so terrible that HE WOULDN’T DRIVE OVER IT! The problem hasn’t gotten any better.
Also, everyone seems to be fixated on the bridges that go over rivers (like the bridge in Minnesota). But there are a LOT of other bridges, overpasses, etc., that need to be looked at too - especially low rated bridges that carry large daily traffic.
KC’s previous Mayors didn’t work very hard to fix roads, bridges, etc., so now the public is going to blame Funkhouser since he is the current Mayor. Maybe we can get Cordish and AEG to help pay for some of the infrastructure, since they now pretty much OWN downtown.
A special thanks to our local media (TV “news”) for spending all their time chasing housefires, promoting prime-time programs and stories of “stranger danger” than worrying about our cities large problems like infrastructure.
There’s more than enough blame to go around. Let’s not forget our elected state and federal representatives. A significant part of their job is to champion projects that benefit the KC area. You’d think they’d hustle to find funding after the deck on the Paseo Bridge dropped a few inches. But I guess it’s more important that the Grandview Triangle remain under perpetual construction.
Well, the “other shoe” has finally dropped and someone has attempted to draw a parallel between the 35W bridge and Red Bridge. The bridge rating scale is not a scale of safety, nor is it a scale of the bridge’s structural integrity. A number of factors figure into it, and “functionality” figures prominently. A highly functional bridge would be one that could carry all kinds of traffic at high speeds. Red Bridge can only carry neighborhood traffic at neighborhood speeds.
If we had gone ahead and spent $20 million dollars on the BridgeZilla plan like Chuck Eddy wanted to do, then we’d have been short on money to do needed repair work elsewhere. Moreover, such a huge bridge would have had over-sized future maintenance and repair costs.
It’s time for the local apologists for the engineers from Jurassic Park to stop thinking like dinosaurs. Bigger is not better.
ChrisM70, we got a new Choteau Bridge. I’m thinking that Harrah’s might have had more to do with that then Cleaver, but who knows?
It was the citizens of KCMO that built the new bridge. We voted to tax ourselves and spend $100 million on a new bridge that
STLDOTMoDOT was unable to fund.Yeah, that’s why I mentioned the OLD Choteau Bridge. I was glad to see that it was replaced. I used to hear a lot of scary stories about the old Choteau having holes in the road bed and being a generally scary experience. I wonder what it’s rating was…
For me, the12th Street viaduct is the bridge that I have some issues with. Perhaps it is safe and it’s a beautiful piece of architecture, but I’ll be honest that because of it’s age and height, I sometimes get a little worried…
Of course, the bridges in New York are almost all over 50 years old, and they carry HUGE amounts of traffic everyday and haven’t fallen down!
The 12th Street Viaduct is currently under construction. They have been on the lower structure for over year. The actual asphalt driving surface should be repaved in the next year.
Craig, I’m really curious EXACTLY what this rating does mean.
Kristi,
I asked a civil engineer and he said that the number means almost nothing. That should be apparent to everyone after Wednesday. It is highly subjective, considered to be wrong more than half the time, and often a political football.
You cannot tell if a bridge is about to collapse by looking at the number. I’m sure the Tacoma Narrows Bridge would have rated a 100 or close to it on the day it collapsed.
the brooklyn bridge rates a ZERO so ratings can mean anything. bring the little red bridge road bridge into this is just more fear mongering. that bridge is more strudy than most of the huge bridges that are built today.
Craig,
Did you speak with THE engineer or AN engineer? I can’t imagine the engineer that inspected the bridge and assigned the rating believes it is almost nothing. I believe it is past debate that Red Bridge needs to be replaced. Do we agree on that much?
skc,
Been under the red bridge lately? You honestly believe your last sentence? Really??
I have been under the bridge a lot, where I saw the reconstruction that no one with the City likes to mention. It was done in 1982 and looks as fresh as the day it was completed.
Kristi, I have spoken with several engineers, some of whom have done bridge inspections.
By the way, the Red Bridge had a rating around 20 until the City decided it wanted to put a highway through there, then SURPRISE, it’s a 2.
One more fact to chew on: that bridge would probably never have rated much more than 20 even if brand new because of the curved approach, overhead truss, only two lanes, and no shoulders.
Finally, I only asked one engineer if the bridge had to be replaced and the answer was no, of course not. The question has to be answered if it is historic or not, and what will be the long-term costs of replacement vs. rehabilitation.
I have to agree with skc. Pre-war bridges and buildings were very well built compared to most post-war constructions. I think Kristi is a front for the highway lobby. They don’t want to repair bridges. There’s more money in making new and bigger ones.
LOL! A front for the highway lobby? I’m gonna take a stab and say that that was not a compliment.
I’m merely a concerned citizen of south KC that is forced, on occasion, to use that outdated bridge. The only reason I say ‘on occasion’ is because I will avoid so whenever possible and instead use Blue River Road. Craig has pointed out all that is lacking on the bridge (add RR crossing). Yes, I do want a new bridge but sadly I will not be making any money from one.
I’ve also had occasions to speak to engineers about this bridge, ones right here in this neighborhood, that feel differently than yours. But that will ALWAYS be the case, right?
Channel 9 reported today that “transportation officials said they’re working on changing terminology within the industry so it doesn’t sound unnecessarily scary to the public.”
They’re talking about the terms “structurally deficient,” “functionally obsolete,” and “fracture critical”.
If you watch the video at http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/13895075/detail.html you will see that some things go into the sufficiency rating that the average joe would think have nothing whatsoever to do with how sturdy a bridge is — things like “detour convenience”.
The report concludes: “while [the I-70 deck-truss bridge] is technically ’structurally deficient’ it is also quite safe, even robust.”
This report is quite reassuring after about a week of near hysteria over sufficiency ratings from people who should know better.
“Structurally deficient,” “functionally obsolete,” and “fracture critical”.
And which one is the safe bridge??