Photography courtesy of MoDOT
Because of the years of political wrangling that preceded construction, there’s a sense that the new Mississippi River bridge (the first in four decades) took forever. So you might be surprised to learn that construction took less than four years, putting the project ahead of schedule and under budget. It carries Interstate 70 between Missouri and Illinois, alleviating stress on the Poplar Street and Martin Luther King bridges. The cable-stayed design was chosen for cost, but “just a real big bonus, it’s a beautiful structure,” says Randy Hitt, the bridge’s project director with the Missouri Department of Transportation. “It almost looks like a piece of artwork, as opposed to a bridge. It’s a very sleek, simple design.”
By the Numbers
1,500: Length of the span in feet, making it the third-longest cable-stayed bridge in the country
400: Height of the bridge’s towers in feet
$695 million: Total cost of the project, including relocating the interstate on either side
50,000: Cubic yards of concrete used in construction
12 million: Pounds of reinforcing steel used
16 million: Pounds of structural steel used
23: Percentage of minority participation in the project, which Hitt calls “a phenomenal number for the region”
