St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 14 August 2016
Leah Thorsen
The strong push for a new bridge over the Missouri River in Washington, Mo., began in earnest after the collapse of the Interstate 35 bridge in Minneapolis.
That was back in 2007, on Aug. 1 to be exact. Bob Zick ticks off the date without hesitation, remembering the day he knew that replacing the Highway 47 bridge couldn’t be put off any longer.
“We needed to do something to bring it to the top of the list,” said Zick, a lawyer in Washington, Mo.
Since then, Zick has led a committee that met once a month to plot a strategy for a new bridge.
He and other bridge supporters went to meetings of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission, which governs the Missouri Department of Transportation and makes key funding decisions.
They went to Washington, D.C., to talk with Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., and Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth.
There were a lot of local meetings too, to drum up local support and local money.
Nine years later, construction on the $69 million bridge to Warren County is set to begin in the next few months.
“I’m sure most folks don’t appreciate how long it takes,” Zick said of the process to build a bridge.
That process included applying for a $10 million federal TIGER grant, which MoDOT secured in 2014.
It took more than a decade to build the current bridge, which opened in 1936. It was a toll bridge — the cost to cross was 45 cents for a car and driver. That’s equal to $7.80 in today’s dollars, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Not a cheap trip, especially in the midst of the Great Depression.
Tolls ended in 1951, when the state took over maintenance.
When the bridge opened, more than 10,000 people attended a ceremony, according to MoDOT. There was a banquet and a parade, and concerts and an evening dance.
It’s not such a cause for celebration these days, with its two narrow, shoulderless lanes and maintenance needs where about 11,000 vehicles a day cross. MoDOT says that despite its deteriorating condition, the bridge is safe to travel across.
Washington Mayor Sandy Lucy was another champion of the bridge, and helped secure $500,000 from her city, $250,000 from Franklin County and another $50,000 from Warren County. That $800,000 will be used for upgrades on the bridge, such as lighting and a better fence than the chain-link option that MoDOT would have covered.
When the highway commission met in Washington in 2012, schoolchildren showed up with a wheelbarrow holding more than $1,000 in pennies they’d collected for the bridge.
“We were very active in this whole process, and very patient,” Lucy said.
The new bridge will be built just upstream, to the west, of the current bridge. It will have two 12-foot lanes, as well as 10-foot shoulders and a 10-foot protected path for cyclists and pedestrians.
Mo DOT Rendering of new Highway 47 bridge in Washington, Mo.
A new bridge is to built just upstream — to the west — of the existing bridge, which was built in 1936. It will have two 12-foot lanes and 10-foot shoulders. It’s slated to open in 2018.
For Zick, the reason to get involved and volunteer so much of his time toward getting a new bridge was simple.
When the shingles on your house are bad, you don’t wait for the roof to leak and wreck your drywall — you call a roofer and get it fixed, he said.
“We as a society need to do that with our infrastructure,” said Zick, 61. “And we’re not doing that.”
And the wait isn’t over. The new bridge is expected to open in late 2018, and the old bridge is set to be demolished in early 2019.
