What is going on with the Chester Bridge project?
Area residents got their questions answered recently during an open house hosted by The Missouri Department of Transportation July 19 at the Catalyst Center.
There were several members of the construction team on hand to answer questions from the public about the project. A similar event was held in June 2022 and much has taken place since that time with the Chester Bridge.
“This meeting is all about the final design,” Project Director Brian Okenfuss said. “The reason we are here is to present that design to the public so they can see what we are building.”
The new bridge will be a three-tower, cable-stayed design and Okenfuss said that the design should be better.
“The design was able to limit the amount of piers in the water,” he said. “By putting three towers they were able to shorten the height of the towers and limit the effects it would have on the airport and FAA.”
The bridge will also be wider with two 12-foot lanes and a pair of 10-foot shoulders.
“Now agricultural traffic will not have to call the police to help them across,” he said. “Those are just a few of the bigger impactful things that people can see.”
Final design of the project is well underway with more than 50 percent of it completed at this point.
Construction for the Chester Bridge will be starting in approximately one month, with little limitations for traffic for those who use the bridge on a daily basis.
“The good thing about this design is that it is built off-alignment,” Okenfuss said. “There probably won’t be much impact to traffic until the last few weeks of the project.”
The Chester Bridge currently has two 11-foot lanes and carries 7,000 vehicles per day with approximately 25 percent being commercial motor vehicle traffic. It connects the cities of Chester, Illinois and Perryville across the Mississippi River via Route 51.
The current truss bridge was originally constructed in 1942 and was re-constructed in 1944 after a severe storm destroyed the main span. The bridge has allowed motorists to travel both east and west across the Mississippi River for 80 years.
This truss bridge has 14 spans for a total length of 2,827 feet. There are two main spans of 670 feet each. The bridge accommodates two lanes of traffic and is 22 feet wide with a vertical clearance of 19 feet 6 inches.
Over the course of eight decades, the Chester Bridge has become less functional for modern vehicles. Although the bridge is safe for travel, this aging structure is considered to be in poor condition. MoDOT is continuing to monitor the bridge. The last inspection occurred in the fall 2021.
The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approved an amendment to the FY2022-2026 Statewide Transportation Improvement Program to fund the Chester Bridge Replacement Project (J9P3857) during its meeting on Sept. 9, 2021. The estimated cost of the replacement project is $189 million. The Illinois Department of Transportation committed $63 million toward the cost of a bridge replacement in its FY2022-2027 Rebuild Illinois Highway Improvement Program.
The Chester Bridge replacement is on pace to be completed in Dec. 2026.
