Highway Commission selects team to rebuild 19 bridges on I-44

(From MODOT)

Southwest District – The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission today selected The ESS Team to improve 19 bridges along an approximately 30-mile stretch of I-44 between Sarcoxie and Halltown.

To provide details of the project, MoDOT is hosting a news conference at 10 a.m., Thursday, Feb. 7, at the Joplin Public Library, 1901 E. 20th Street in Joplin.

Many of these bridges are original to the construction of I-44 in the 1960s and have deteriorated to the point where major work must be done to keep the bridges safe for travel.

The project is in line with Gov. Parson’s commitment to focus on taking care of Missouri’s vital infrastructure.

There are approximately 10,400 bridges on the state’s highway system. More than 900 of them are rated as “poor” by the Federal Highway Administration.

Four teams vied for the opportunity to design and build I-44 Project Bridge Rebuild, as it’s being called. Twelve (12) bridges will be replaced and seven (7) bridges will receive major rehabilitation work between Mile Marker 29 near Sarcoxie and Lawrence County Route Z (Mile Marker 58) near Halltown.

The ESS Team is a partnership of engineering and construction firms that will design and construct the project with oversight by MoDOT and the Federal Highway Adminstration.

ESS Team members are:
Emery Sapp & Sons, Inc. – Springfield
Parsons Transportation Group, Inc. – Washington, D.C.
Civil Design, Inc. – St. Louis
Lochmueller Group – St. Peters
Dan Brown & Associates – Sequatchie, Tenn.

Construction of the $36 million project is scheduled to begin in late spring or early summer of 2019 with completion in December 2021. Anyone interested in the project, or who would like to receive regular e-updates during construction, can visit the project website – I-44 Project Bridge Rebuild.

This will be the 14th design-build project for MoDOT since the contract for The New I-64 in St. Louis was awarded in the fall of 2006. Three are currently under construction – St. Louis Safety Project, the Champ Clark Bridge in the Northeast District and the I-435 South Loop Link in Kansas City.