By Daniel Winningham
Earlier this month, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approved an amendment to a five-year fiscal year 2022-26 statewide transportation improvement plan to fund the Chester Bridge Replacement Project.
The commission also approved MoDOT Southeast District’s proposal to complete the Chester bridge using the design-build project delivery.
The design-build method will allow industry input on both the design and construction of the new bridge, according to MoDOT.
Brian Okenfuss, who has been the Chester bridge project director for the past month, provided a recent update on the Highways and Transportation Commission decision.
Initially, bridge repairs were budgeted to cost an estimated $10 million and were viewed as too high according to Okenfuss.
“Earlier this year, we were going to let a contract to repair the Chester bridge,” Okenfuss said. “It was approximately a $10 million contract. When we received the bids they were excessively high.”
The commission couldn’t award repair contract but something had to be done, Okenfuss noted.
“We put together a plan and presented it to the commission about the possibility of replacing the bridge, if funding was available,” Okenfuss said. “In that sense, we knew this was a possibility.
Bridge replacement was viewed as one of the options available after they rejected the repair contract, Okenfuss said.
The Missouri HIghway Transportation COmmission is a six-member board appointed by the governor and approved the Senate. The board provides guidance and direction to MoDOT. The commission has final authority to approve projects
Every year in July, the commission reviews and adopts the statewide transportation improvement program. MoDOT populates it with all of the projects that are for review.
The replacement cost, estimated to be around $180 to $189 million is substantially more than repair work. The structure type is dependant on span length.
“The commission did approve it to be a design build project, which simply means that we will hire a contractor who will both design the project and build it,” Okenfuss noted.
This approach is an option on certain MoDOT proposals, according to Okenfuss.
“We have authority to do it on a limited number of projects,” he said. “The benefit of design build is it allows for more innovation and also allows for the timeline to be sped up a little bit because you can start construction before your final design is complete.”
A new bridge would likely include 12-foot lanes with an eight or 10-foot shoulder on each side. The existing Chester Bridge includes 11-foot lanes without a shoulder and estimates a daily traffic count of 7,000 vehicles per day.
The Illinois Department of Transportation is allocating bridge replacement funding in their version of a state improvement program for 2022-27.
There is nothing designed at this time for the Chester bridge and Okenfuss noted there are hundreds of projects in that five-year plan
It’s MoDOT’s entire our outlay of projects for the nextr half decade.
The decision by the commisssion allows MoDOT to work toward preparing a request for proposal, which is “where we request a proposal from design build contractors,” according to Okenfuss.
Once MoDOT submit a proposal, it will see the options available for working with the state on constructing the next bridge.
“That’s what starts the process of hiring a design build contractor,” Okenfuss said.
Background
The Chester Bridge was built in 1942, allowing vehicles to cross the Mississippi River without a ferry. Until 1989, it was a toll bridge. The bridge includes two span at 670 feet in length apiece. The truss bridge has 14 spans, totaling 2,827 feet and is 22 feet wide with a top vertical height of 19 feet, six inches.
The Chester Bridge is one of 200 major bridges in Missouri. This distinction is given to bridges more than 1,000 feet long.
The estimated replacement cost is $189 million, according to MoDOT. In addition to the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approving its amendment recently, the Illinois Department of Transportation earmarked $67 million toward bridge reconstruction as part of its fiscal year 2022-27 Rebuild Illinois highway improvement plan for 2023-2027 as well as an additional $5 million for “bridge repair” in 2022.
Perryville city administrator Brent Buerck informed the Board of Aldermen of the commission decision at a Tuesday meeting.
“Before, we weren’t going to be starting until 2026, the MoDOT highway commission voted...to move us in such a pattern that we’re going to be done in 2025. This is a huge deal for us, we’re pretty excited.”
