Missouri unveils bridge repair plan

~ A list of the state's bridges slated for repair will not be released until it is completed.

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Flanked by a decaying bridge and a yellow school bus, state officials on Thursday announced plans to repair or replace 800 of Missouri's worst bridges by 2012.

The project, labeled the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Plan, will allow a single contractor to both design and build the bridge upgrades as well as maintain the bridges for at least 25 years, at an estimated cost of $400 million to $600 million.

In return, the state will tap federal highway money to pay the contractor about $40 million annually over the lifetime of the contract, avoiding a lump-sum payment and the sale of state-backed revenue bonds.

"This is a radical approach," said Pete Rahn, director of the Missouri Department of Transportation. "We must address the condition of our bridges. They have been allowed to deteriorate too far."

Rahn later acknowledged that Missouri, by some accounts, has some of the worst bridges in the country. More than 10 percent of the roughly 10,000 bridges in Missouri's state highway system are considered structurally deficient, he said.

Bridges slated for improvement can be found in 109 of the state's 114 counties. With a prod from Gov. Matt Blunt, Rahn said he can identify needy bridges in the remaining counties.

The list of bridges to be improved should be completed later this year, with a contract expected to be awarded by the summer of 2007, said Rahn. The accelerated timeframe suggests a bridge repair every two business days, he said.

"We don't know how the private sector will respond to our request, because frankly, no one has done it this way before," said Rahn.

Kyle Kittrell, a former MoDOT planning director who now works for private industry, said he expects the initiative to be well-received.

"No other state has done anything this big," said Kittrell, a senior transportation engineer for TranSystems of Kansas City. "I don't think any one company can do it alone. That's a lot of bridges to do every year for five years."

The initiative was unveiled at a news conference next to a bridge over Grindstone Creek east of Columbia. After the announcement, Blunt and Rahn ventured underneath the bridge, easily peeling away chunks of loose metal and concrete from a bridge support.

"We have much worse bridges than this all over the state," Rahn told the governor.