A contract was awarded Thursday for the replacement of a Dunklin County bridge that has been closed since September.
An $885,863 contract was awarded to Joe’s Bridge & Grading, Inc., for a bridge deck and substructure replacement on Route J over Ditch No. 12 near Glennonville in Dunklin County.
The award was made by the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission for the Southeast District during its regular meeting.
When the bridge was closed, officials said it would likely be the summer of 2023 before it would reopen. Updated information on the work schedule was not immediately available Thursday.
District Bridge Engineer for the Southwest District Ed Hess said at the time of the closure that soil erosion at the bridge site is the culprit of the problems.
“That bridge was built in 1971 with concrete piling,” Hess said. “We found during the inspection that it wasn’t driven to the normal bedrock.”
Bridges are inspected every other year and a dip in the deck was discovered in September 2022.
“Our measurements revealed one pier had settled an inch to an inch-and-a-half,” Hess continued. “That doesn’t sound like much. But for bridges, that’s a lot. They shouldn’t settle at all.”
For that reason, MoDOT decided to close the structure, the engineer said.
“The piling itself should be 25 to 30 feet long,” Hess noted. “Of that 25 to 30 feet, only five feet still is in the ground.”
“It’s the nature of the soil there,” Hess added. “It’s mostly sand. It’s very erodible. That soil condition given heavy rains during the last two years washing things out created the issue.”
The new bridge should include a standard eight-inch deck, he said.
“We’re designing a new structure,” Hess said.
Contracts awarded Wednesday also include resurfacing, pavement improvements, pavement markings, bridge repairs and replacements, and scrub seal projects. A $561,149 contract was awarded to Missouri Petroleum Products Company, LLC, for scrub seals on the following routes: Route A from Route 60 to Route 49 in Carter and Wayne counties, and; Route 162 from Interstate 55 to Route M in New Madrid County.