eMissourian: Washington MO River Bridge, with bike/ped connection, officially added to regional funding plan

The project to build a new Missouri River bridge at Washington is in the new 2014-17 Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) approved Wednesday by the East-West Gateway Council of Governments. . . . 

Washington Bridge photo courtesy Wikipedia; photo by Wikipedia users Americasroof. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

The new TIP estimates that the project will cost $60.1 million by the time it is completed in 2019. The TIP includes $56,339,000 in state funds and $800,000 in local funds for a total of $57,139,000 to cover the cost of engineering ($3,516,000), right of way ($476,000) and actual construction ($53,147,000).

The $800,000 in local funds are dedicated for bridge enhancements not covered by the state.

Last summer, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission included the bridge project in its annual State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). . . . 

A special committee assigned to develop a priority list of enhancements still is taking public comments on the current plan which includes lighting of horizontal girders and piers, decorative fencing between the driving lanes and pedestrian bike path on the west side, lighting along the path and one or more overhead arches.

The committee is scheduled to make its final recommendation by Aug. 16 in order for the engineering and design work to proceed.

Construction of the bridge, which will feature two 12-foot-wide driving lanes and 10-foot shoulders, is scheduled to begin in late 2016 with the new span opening to traffic in 2018.

Creating safe bike/ped crossings of major rivers in Missouri, and particularly creating safe river crossings connecting the Katy Trail to nearby communities, has been a top priority of MoBikeFed's Vision for Bicycling and Walking in Missouri. Washington is the last major Katy Trail river crossing remaining to be built in Missouri, and will join Booneville, Page Ave, Hermann, Jefferson City crossings--most of those completed in just the past 10 years--in connecting the Katy Trail to a nearby city across the river.