Converting Boonville Bridge for Trail Use will cost only $1 million, say supporters

One question of importance to the effort to use the Boonville MKT Bridge as part of the Katy Trail--how much will it cost?

The Save the Katy Bridge Committee has released a report with a new estimate of the cost, reported in the Boonville Daily News:

Breaking the project into two phases, Allstate Consultants has estimated the total budget for the work at $800,000 to $1,150,000. This figure takes into account design, architecture and inspection fees, as well as any contingenies.

"The current estimates of $3-8 million are grossly over-estimated, and the actual cost will be 10-25 percent of those estimates, unless DNR has developed new trail formulas for bridges," said Chad Sayre, an engineer with Allstate, at a recent meeting of the Katy Bridge committee.

Paula Shannon, chairman of the committee, said they were "very careful not to release figures until we had something credible," and believes Allstate's estimate will simplify the group's ability to bring in donations for the project.

"If anything, this estimate may be high because we encouraged the consulting firm to be generous in their figures. We don't want any surprises," she said. "This is a very do-able amount to raise."

The Missouri DNR replied to this estimate in a press release. (Please note that this release claims to be correcting inaccurate statements--however it contains several inaccurate and misleading statements of its own. Important facts can be checked by consulting the original documents that created the Katy Trail, which the Missouri Bicycle Federation has made available here.)

The case number for the lawsuit filed by Jay Nixon is "05CO-CC00023". You can browse the case docket by going to https://www.courts.mo.gov/casenet and typing in the case number.

(Note: If you want to support the Katy Trail and the effort to save the Katy Bridge at Boonville, the best thing you can do right now is to support the Katy Trail as a whole by participating in MoBikeFed's Complete The Katy Trail email campaign.)