groundbreaking ceremony for the new I-70 Rocheport bridge project (file photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)
State transportation officials are urging you to avoid heavily-traveled I-70 in mid-Missouri’s Rocheport on Sunday morning, which is when the truss of the old Missouri River bridge will be demolished.
The state Department of Transportation (MODOT) says the blast is tentatively scheduled to take place at 7:30 am on Sunday. I-70 in both directions will close, and MoDOT urges you to avoid that area between 7-9 am.
Part of the Katy trail will also be closed for the blast, which will drop six-million pounds of steel into the Missouri River. MoDOT says the demo team must then remove pieces of the truss from the river within 24 hours of the blast to reopen the river channel to boat and barge traffic.
The old, deteriorating bridge was built in 1960, when Dwight David Eisenhower was president. Missouri received an $81-million dollar federal grant from the Trump administration for the project. It’s the largest competitive grant ever received by MoDOT.
Governor Mike Parson tells 939 the Eagle that four-million trucks cross the aging bridge annually.
