A single-lane bridge over Hubble Creek in Jackson City Park is one step closer to completion

Jackson's Board of Aldermen will take up next month a $39,500 proposal from a Southeast Missouri engineering firm to provide "construction phase services" for a new single-lane bridge across Hubble Creek in Jackson City Park.

"The design is done and is out to bid," said Jackson Public Works director Kent Peetz, regarding a span to replace the current low-water crossing.

Peetz said the money required to build the bridge will be determined once prospective contractors return their bids with cost estimates.

Smith & Company Engineers of Poplar Bluff, Missouri, told city officials the firm will provide, assuming aldermanic assent, services to include the following:

• assist the city in bidding of the job, provide a list of qualified bidders, help evaluate bids received and sit in on a preconstruction conference with the selected contractor
• make periodic visits to the job site to evaluate contractor's progress
• prepare change orders, if necessary, by the city
• inspect materials and sample concrete and other materials as required
• observe on-site operations such as excavation and backfilling, concrete pouring, bridge bent replacement, setting of the bridge, seeding and mulching and pile driving
• participate in the final inspection.

Smith & Company will receive construction bids on the city's behalf with a deadline date of December 9.

Peetz said the tentative timeline is to start construction of what Smith & Company refers to as the "Hubble Ford Low Water Crossing Replacement with Bridge" project in the spring with an eye toward completion by summer.

Drilling down

"We considered an arch bridge but settled on a box beam structure," said Peetz, who added the span will have a 14-foot driving lane plus a nearly 9-foot-wide walkway.

Peetz said the vision for the bridge is that it last for the next 50 to 80 years.

"There will be an iron railing that will divide the walking from the driving. You could potentially take that [railing] down in the future and have two-way traffic, if needed," he said.

Peetz added the design includes a sensitivity to the aesthetics of the park.

"We are putting pilasters on the sides of the new bridge that sort of matches the rock on the sides of the creek."