Missouri Plans Large Design/build Contract For Statewide Bridge Replacements

摘要

By 2014, more than 800 bridges in Missouri will be replaced or rehabilitated under a $700-million project known as the Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program. The bulk of the project will be conductec through a single design/build contract under which 554 bridges will be replaced over the next five years. Another 248 bridges are being rehabilitate under a more typical design/bid/build procurement process. There are 10,276 bridges in the Missouri highway system, and nearly 1,100 of them are considered to be in poor or serious condition. "Like a lot of other states, we are facing a large inventory of deficient bridges," says Bob Brendel, the outreach coordinator in the Missouri Department of Transporta-tion (MODOT) for the replacement program. "Although we have made a big commitment to bridge improvement projects, we couldn't get ahead of the curve," Brendel says. "We'd have more bridges become deficient while we were improving others."