New Kansas Expressway bridge will close Friday night

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Work to rehabilitate the Kansas Expressway (Missouri 13) railroad bridge north of Division Street will require Kansas Expressway to be closed Friday night (Sept. 30).   The bridge, which is between Division and Atlantic streets, will be closed between 8 p.m. and 5:30 a.m. Saturday.  Crews will remove striping and orange cones that had two-way traffic shifted to the northbound bridge.  

Early Saturday, the bridge will reopen to four lanes of traffic.

During the closing, Kansas Expressway traffic will be detoured onto Kearney Street, West Bypass and Chestnut Expressway.

Periodic Lane Closings Continue

The bridge rehabilitation project will not be completed until early December.  Crews will have work to complete, which means lane closings are still possible on Kansas between Division and Atlantic streets in October and November.  The lane closings could result in traffic backups at times.

Bridge Project Highlights:

* Rebuild the bridge deck one-half at a time.

* Install "Red Signal Ahead" flashing signs for southbound Kansas Expressway on the bridge ahead of the Division Street traffic signal.

* Install new traffic signals on Kansas Expressway at Division Street and on Kansas Expressway at Atlantic Street.

* Build sidewalks on both the northbound and southbound sides of Kansas Expressway, including the bridge, between Division and Atlantic streets. A concrete wall will separate pedestrians from vehicle traffic on the bridge.

* Close Locust Street underneath the bridge PERMANENTLY.

The project is scheduled for completion by Dec. 1.

The prime contractor on the project is Lehman Construction of California, Mo., doing the work for a low bid amount of $6.8 million.