MoDOT to improve bridges

ST. LOUIS -- The Missouri Department of Transportation awarded two emergency contracts Friday to repair pedestrian bridges across the state after one of the bridges collapsed in St. Louis.

MoDOT found that 60 bridges shared the same design of a concrete walkway that collapsed last week onto Interstate 55 in St. Louis, said Paul Kelly, the agency's assistant state bridge engineer.

The emergency contracts -- worth a total of $812,000 -- will pay to retrofit 45 of the 1960s-era bridges in the St. Louis area, 12 in Kansas City and three in St. Joseph.

The pedestrian walkway collapsed in St. Louis because steel reinforcement bars connecting the walkway to a highway overpass gradually decayed over the years from water and road salt, Kelly said.

One motorist was injured when her car hit concrete chunks from the walkway.

The 60 walkways of similar design will be reinforced with new steel bars and epoxy, Kelly said.

The walkways are inspected every other year, Kelly said. Inspectors didn't see that the steel bars were corroding because they are fully embedded in cement, he said.

The only sign that the bars were corroding is a pale white stain on the surrounding concrete, Kelly said.

Inspectors "had seen some (of the staining) but it wasn't to the extent that it looked like a problem," he said.

The Delor Street walkway that collapsed in St. Louis passed its inspection in 2005, said State Transportation Director Pete Rahn.

The I-55 overpass at Holly Hills Avenue showed signs of corrosion and extra concrete barriers were placed on it to stabilize the walkway until it is repaired, Kelly said.

No other bridges were thought to pose a danger of collapse, he said.

Repair work on the bridges will begin next week, Kelly said. Repairs in St. Louis should be completed in two months, and repairs in Kansas City and St. Joseph within a month, he said.

Gershenson Construction Co. will do the St. Louis repairs and Progressive Contractors Inc. will do the repairs in Kansas City and St. Joseph.

St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay's office declined comment.

St. Louis County inspectors found three small bridges spanning creeks that shared a similar design with the bridge that collapsed, said county highway department spokesman Dave Wrone. Repairs will soon begin on the bridges, he said.

St. Louis County authorities are satisfied with MoDOT's response to the bridge problems, he said.

"They're moving as quickly as they can -- we're convinced on that," Wrone said.