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Commuter Landscape Changes In Southeast Kansas City Suburb

GoogleEarth

Drivers navigating the heavily commuted interchange of Highways 350 and I-470 Monday morning will find a different landscape than they encountered  just before the weekend. 

Heavy concrete chippers spent the last two-and-a-half days taking down bridge decks.

Route 50/350 in the Lees Summit, Mo. area closed Friday night and was to reopen to traffic at 5 a.m.  Steve Porter of MoDot says machinery called “peckers” chopped out old decks on 470 bridges— “when you pass by there Monday morning you’ll look out and you’ll find no pavement there at all. All you’ll find is bridge beams.

Porter said the scene is then laid for more visible construction labor—“and that’s where they’ll start putting in false-work to build a new bridge deck  for Westbound  I-470 over 350.”

Porter said drivers might expect nightly lane closings on east and westbound highway 50/350 into mid-September. 

Bridge restoration and repair is one area of MoDOT concentration this summer. Another of the most obvious projects is the 12th street viaduct that crossed over I-35 on the west side of the downtown freeway loop.

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