MoDOT pleased with weekend Expressway work

State Transportation officials said Monday the weekend project to remove two bridges over Jefferson City's U.S. 50-63 Expressway "went extremely smoothly."

Working against a 6 a.m. Monday deadline to re-open the one-mile stretch of highway between Monroe Street and Clark Avenue, the construction crews finished their work late Sunday, and re-opened the four-lane expressway at 9:30 p.m.

The highway was closed for just over 50 hours.

Patty Lemongelli, MoDOT's Central District construction and materials engineer, said Monday the biggest problem during the closure and demolition was a "snagged" phone line that got wrapped up in some of the equipment taking down the Jackson Street bridge.

"That was relatively minor compared to the full operation taking place and the considerable impact to traffic caused by the expressway closure," she said.

Resident Engineer Terry Imhoff said the line was on the south end of the Jackson Street bridge.

There was no report on how much damage occurred, or whether any telephone service was disrupted.

The demolition was the only time officials expect the Expressway to be closed for a long period of time, although brief closures of 10-15 minutes will occur as the contractor sets the girders for the replacement bridges.

The two overpass bridges were removed so that a third lane can be added in each direction, between Monroe Street and the Lafayette Street interchange that is the main part of the $20.3 million project, and between Lafayette Street and Clark Avenue.

The Chestnut Street overpass is scheduled to be replaced in June, while the Jackson Street overpass won't be replaced until August 2016.

The demolition work created nearly 2,000 tons of material that had to be hauled away, Lemongelli reported:

• Concrete - 3,758,400 pounds (or 928 cubic yards at an average 150 lbs/cubic foot).

• Reinforcing steel - 173,800 pounds.

• Structural steel - 6,920 pounds.

The total of 3,939,120 pounds, or 1,969.56 tons will be recycled.

"The concrete was hauled to the Holts Summit area and will likely be used as clean-fill for property site development," Lemongelli said Monday. "The reinforcing steel was taken to a local salvage yard for further handling.

"There was also a total of 530 linear feet of aluminum-alloy bridge handrail that was removed from the structures. Per the contract, MoDOT is retaining the material (it was hauled to a MoDOT maintenance facility) to be used as replacement rail on existing bridges, as needed."

There was no specific breakdown of the cost of the weekend's work, she said, since it was required as part of the total project.

Columbia-based Emory Sapp and Sons is the main contractor for the interchange project, which is to be completed in Fall 2016.

The company would have been penalized for each 15 minutes after 6 a.m. Monday that the work wasn't finished.

But, Lemongelli said, there was "no incentive or financial benefit to be received if completed early."