Paseo Bridge announcement today

It’s an eagerly awaited announcement because there’s so much still unknown about project, including what a new bridge might look like and whether it will close during construction. There are still worries about whether it will have a lane for bikes and pedestrians and how it will affect access to to the Paseo Industrial District where 75 businesses employ 3,000 people.

Brent Hugh, executive director of the Missouri Bicycle Federation, sent a last-ditch letter to the highway commission last week, yet again pleading for consideration of a bike and pedestrian lane. He, too, is curious about the outcome.

“It’s been such a closed process, I don’t know what’s going on,” Hugh said. “I am completely in the dark.”

Many of the project details, like the bike lane, were determined outside the eyes of the general public because the state is using a different process from how most Missouri highways are built.

Missouri usually builds highways by designing the project, putting it out for public comment and then bidding it to a construction company. For the Paseo, the state wrapped the construction and design into one contract to get it done faster and cheaper.