Tue December 22, 2020 - Midwest Edition #26
Lori Tobias â CEG Correspondent
The Blanchette Missouri River Bridge is undergoing a $35 million major rehabilitation.
The
Blanchette Missouri River Bridge is undergoing a major rehabilitation that has restricted the five-lane eastbound bridge to just two lanes. The $35 million project is necessary due to the age of the bridge, which opened in 1978. The last repairs were completed in 2006. It was built in the early ‘70s, said Andy Tuerck, St. Charles area engineer of the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). It needs a major rehab about every 20 years. The biggest component is paint replacement. I make the analogy, ‘You can put a layer of shingles on top of your old shingles when you have hail damage. But you can t just keep adding shingles. Likewise, you can t keep adding paint. You can t just keep layering it up and layering it up. It doesn t end up protecting the steel.