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Nine Weeks For I-470 Fix

MoDOT's Beth Wright outlines failed highway remedies.
photo by dan verbeck
MoDOT's Beth Wright outlines failed highway remedies.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-914136.mp3

Work could be underway as early as Friday, July 23rd, to fix collapsed pavement that closed I-470 in part of the Three Trails Crossing in Southeast Kansas City. Contracts to build a new, longer bridge leading into the highway maze will be signed tomorrow.

What you'll be driving on when this project is finished, and it's expected to be done by September 30th, is a bridge. There was no bridge before. What collapsed was earthen, ground-bound. And there will be be a bridge spanning that section. It will actually be a 225 foot extension to the stable bridge already in place.

Beth Wright is MoDOT District Engineer. She says that, around the state, they've never seen an accident like this before. Citing tests, Wright said.

"The soil samples we took yesterday revealed a groundwater table about 10 feet above a shale layer that was there yesterday, but was not there in the initial borings in 2001."

The cost of this project is projected at three-and-a-half to five-and-a-half million dollars. Wright says there is money in the budget for it. There will be contractor incentives to finish construction earlier than September 30th.

Thousands of daily commuters who normally used I-470 to merge with westbound Interstate 435 have had to find a detour.

 

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