Missouri transportation officials wasted no time using stimulus package money.
Moments after President Barack Obama signed the $787 billion package, members of the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission approved a bridge replacement near Tuscumbia, Mo., and three additional projects.
The officials met at the foot of the 76-year-old bridge and monitored the signing by video. With workers standing by, Gov. Jay Nixon sounded a horn after the approval, and a backhoe operator began digging a hole for a support beam.
"This is a great project," Missouri Transportation Department Director Pete Rahn told the Associated Press. "It's something desperately needed, and there is no question it would not be addressed without stimulus money."
Structural concerns closed the Tuscumbia bridge to large trucks in 2007. After the Minnesota bridge collapse, a badly deteriorating steel beam was identified during inspections.
The 1,084-ft bridge carries traffic on Missouri 17 across the Osage River. The replacement will expand the bridge by 8 ft to a total of 28 ft wide and shortened to 970 ft. The construction will be handled by APAC-Kansas City, a division of the Atlanta-based Oldcastle Materials Inc.
The bridge project is expected to be completed in September 2010 at a cost of $8.5 million.
The commission also approved three other projects: $14.6 million to resurface I-35 north of Kansas City, Mo.; $8.7 million to build passing lanes on a U.S. 60 southwest of Springfield; and $18.4 million to repair pavement on I-55 in two southeast Missouri counties.
Rahn said the four projects should support more than 1,400 jobs in the construction industry.
