Hilliard Bridge, located between County Road 525 and Ravenwood Lane on W highway near Poplar Bluff, will soon be demolished and replaced.
A $25.5 million project, the bridge is slated to close June 1 and reopen by Sept. 30.
Currently rated in poor condition, the bridge is still considered safe, but has been negatively impacted by years of traffic and roadway salt.
“We tried to balance the scheduling of the demo with the school schedule as well as the environmental factors,” said Travis Slayton, project manager for Robertson Construction Incorporated, which is in charge of the project.
The route will be closed a little after 8 a.m. June 1.
“We will allow for morning traffic and then try to shut it down sometime after 8 in the morning,” stated Slayton.
The proposed detour link on Highway O is mapped at 23 miles.
“Out of the 1,500 or 1,600 cars a day that will use it, it will probably not be a 23-mile detour for most of them,” said Slayton, “Very seldom would it be the full 23 miles around. That would be theoretically someone going from one side of it all the way around to the other side of it so the detour route to town would be less than that.”
This will be a segmental demolition, which means they will take the bridge apart in sections rather than allowing for pieces of it to contaminate the riverbed below. Slayton explained that because they will be doing the segmental demolition, the process will take about a week longer than it would generally.
“There are environmental reasons for taking it apart in pieces,” said Slayton. “A portion of the riverbed is a mussel bed for some species that are listed on the endangered list.”
Missouri’s Black River provides habitat for several threatened mussel species.
According to a spokesperson for the project, “When a MoDOT project, such as the Route W Bridge replacement using federal funds, impacts the river, precautions to limit harm to the mussels are required under the Endangered Species Act.
“Those limits are incorporated into MoDOT’s permits from the USACE (Corps of Engineers), and approvals from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.”
Among those dependent on the riverbed habitat are the lampsillis abrupta, also known as the pink mucket. The freshwater mussel, along with the western fanshell, is currently listed as threatened species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature list as well as the Missouri Department of Conservation threatened and endangered species list.
Specific to the Black River project, there is a regional condition that prevents work from being done in the river between Feb. 1 and June 15 to allow for spawning during these vital reproduction times for the mussels.
The new bridge will be constructed on the existing alignment due to the existing environmental restraints and the Hilliard river access will be closed during the construction to protect the public.
When asked about the projected time of completion, Slayton said, “We did the Castor River bridge last summer and it took 119 days and it is very comparable to this bridge.”
Completion is anticipated to be by Friday, Sept. 30.
The bridge, originally constructed in 1964, is one of 17 bridges set to be replaced by the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Bootheel Bridge Bundle design-build project and is also included in Gov. Mike Parson’s Focus on Bridges program. The Focus on Bridges program intends to repair or replace 250 bridges across the state at a cost projection of $351 million.
“The design-build team is committed to constructing quality bridges and minimizing traffic disruption for area residents with a focus on keeping both the public and our workers safe,” according to information released by Robertson Contracting ahead of the project.
The work zone will be marked with signs and the alternate detour route on Highway O will be marked for motorists. A video detailing these improvements and detour routes is available at https://youtu.be/WchcYla12J8.
Anyone interested in the design-build project can find more information at https://www.modot.org/bootheel-bridge-bundle or you can contact MoDOT’s Customer Service Center toll-free at 1-888-ASK-MODOT (275-6636).
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