Missouri Attorney General vows to save Katy Bridge at Boonville

According to a Columbia Daily Tribune article:

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon said today he’s going to do whatever he can legally to save the 72-year-old railroad bridge at the center of a tug of war between Union Pacific Railroad and supporters of the cross-state Katy trail.

Nixon has been looking into a decision by Gov. Matt Blunt to relinquish the Missouri River bridge to the railroad, which plans to dismantle it for parts that would be used to build another railroad trestle over the Osage River.

"I am concerned that they would want to give away the bridge," Nixon said of the Department of Natural Resources and Blunt after meeting with bridge-preservation supporters in Boonville. "I’m concerned that they would want to walk away from the bridge."

Neither Blunt’s office nor DNR sought Nixon’s advice before deciding to relinquish the structure to Union Pacific, the attorney general said.

The Kansas City Star also covered this turn of events, as did the Hannibal Courier-Post and the Belleville News-Democrat.

In related news, the Department of Natural Resources has named a replacement for Ron Kucera, the department's deputy policy director who resigned over the department's handling of the Boonville Bridge affair.