Bridge project could mean rough going for motorists

Motorists may find it rough going on a temporary gravel road built across soggy ground and designed to detour traffic while a Bloomfield Road bridge is replaced.

Construction workers are attacking drainage problems that threaten to undermine the detour road which is expected to carry thousands of motorists daily for the next three months.

Penzel Construction Co. of Jackson constructed the half-mile-long gravel road in preparation for closing and replacing the aging bridge that spans Ramsey Branch west of Interstate 55.

City officials said the contractor plans to close the bridge west of Siemers Drive on Wednesday for the duration of the $535,211 project, which is scheduled to be completed by mid-April.

On Wednesday, a worker on a bulldozer repeatedly plowed through the mud along the edge of the newly built, two-lane gravel road in an effort to improve the drainage.

Saturated with water

Dennis Ward, a construction superintendent for Penzel, surveyed the muddy ground south of Bloomfield Road. "It is just saturated with water," he said.

The contractor began constructing the detour following a Dec. 4 groundbreaking. The city obtained an easement to build the detour across a field on Tom Lett's property just south of Bloomfield Road.

The gravel road begins just west of the bridge and ends at Wolverine Road, which connects to new Highway 74 near where it ends west of I-55. Motorists will be able to cross over I-55 on Highway 74.

Ward said the city planned for a gravel road to be constructed but that plan included little drainage work.

Ward said Penzel Construction has had to do some major excavation work in an effort to funnel water away from the temporary roadbed.

"Hopefully in a couple of days we will have it done," Ward said.

Still, the situation is less than ideal. "It's just a bad time of the year to do it," said Ward. It doesn't help that the soil doesn't drain well, he said.

The gravel road could be a maintenance headache for the contractor. Freezing and thawing temperatures will eat away at the gravel roadbed. "That is what kind of worries me," Ward said.

The detour is expected to get a lot of traffic. About 9,000 vehicles cross the deteriorating, narrow creek bridge daily.

City engineer Mark Lester said the construction contract requires the contractor to maintain the detour road while the bridge is being replaced.

Lester knows the gravel road could make for muddy travel. But he said it's better than the other option which was to build a low-water crossing just south of the bridge.

A low-water crossing could have been washed out in a heavy rain, stranding traffic, he said.

"The road, to me, is a good option," Lester said.

City manager Doug Leslie said motorists ultimately will benefit from the replacement of a deteriorating bridge.

The city in July reduced the load limit on the 22-foot-wide bridge from 9 tons to 3 tons. As a result, the city's fire trucks no longer will cross the span and have to take longer and less direct routes to reach homes west of the bridge.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123