MODOT OFFICIAL EXPLAINS BRIDGE CLOSURE

Closing the Mississippi River bridge some evenings next month will inconvenience the fewest number of people while enabling the Missouri Department of Transportation to make needed repairs as quickly as possible, says Randy Hitt, the engineer overseeing the project.

He conceded that not everyone is happy with the plan to close the bridge Sundays through Thursdays from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. beginning July 25 and continuing for three weeks.

"It's going to be an inconvenience to someone," Hitt told a meeting of the Pachyderm Club Thursday night at the Holiday Inn.

The contractor will need the 10 hours each night to get the work done as soon as possible. "We don't want three weeks to become seven weeks," Hitt said.

The closure is needed so that potholes can be covered with one-eighth-inch steel plates. A pothole on the bridge can't simply be filled because the asphalt would fall through the grating.

The repairs are not due to concerns about the bridge's safety, Hitt said. Its safety is evaluated every three months, he said, and is in good shape.

Hitt said signs will be posted on highways at Perryville and Charleston to inform motorists and truckers about the closing.

There is no possibility of opening the bridge for an hour late at night, Hitt said. That would accommodate certain people and not others while creating safety concerns for workers on the bridge, he said.

Only emergency vehicles will be allowed across the bridge during the closure.

Hitt is supervising construction of the new Bill Emerson Memorial Bridge. He said work on the bridge is a bit behind schedule, partly due to flooding on the Illinois side.

The jet grouting work that must be done in the river bed is expected to be completed by the end of the year.

Jet grouting was the solution arrived at after fissures were discovered in the rock under the river. The stabilization technique has not been used under a river before.

"It's a unique application," Hitt said. "We are pioneering this."

He said the world's foremost expert in the technique was hired to oversee the work.

MoDOT hopes to let the contract for the main span later this year, Hitt said.