After a qualifications-based interview selection process by a client Partnership of Great Rivers Greenway, Missouri State Parks and the Missouri State Parks Foundation, CDG was hired in July 2020 to inspect and study the Route 66 Bridge near Eureka, Missouri. A detailed “arm’s length” inspection was conducted in Fall 2020, and St. Louis Based CDG subconsultants, EFK Moen and David Mason & Associates, assisted with the inspection.
The bridge is just over 1,000 feet long and was constructed in 1931 to carry Route 66 over the Meramec River in St. Louis County. Portions of the original Route 66 concrete pavement and curbs still existed at both ends of the bridge. It was closed to vehicle traffic in 2009, and the bridge deck was removed by MoDOT in 2012 before it was transferred to Missouri State Parks for removal or rehabilitation. The bridge is within the 419 acre Route 66 State Park, created in 1999 after the US EPA supervised the dioxin contamination incineration and cleanup in the former city of Times Beach. The main, green painted bridge river spans are 130‘ long under deck warren trusses visible from I-44, located upstream and just south of the Route 66 Bridge. There are also 12 steel plate girder approach spans over the adjacent Meramec River floodway.
The CDG team has completed the detailed bridge inspection and a report of those findings will be submitted to the Partnership in late Spring 2021. Through a series of meetings with the Partnership over the last 8 months, a rehabilitation plan has been developed, and it will be made public in Summer 2021 at an in-person public meeting to be held at the Route 66 State Park Visitor Center. In addition, St. Louis based CDG sub, Planning Design Studio, has developed 5 full color renderings of the rehabilitated bridge to assist with an upcoming fundraising effort (one is pictured above).
The total cost of the bridge rehabilitation, in 2024 dollars, is estimated at $9,000,000. The Partnership would like to have the rehabilitated bridge reopened to pedestrian and bike traffic by 2026, the 100th year anniversary of the opening of Route 66.
