Dish soap used to slide Garth bridge into place: postponed
UPDATE ON 5/15 AT 10:30 P.M:The road preparation has also been cancelled due to the rain in Mid-Missouri around midnight early Monday morning. The construction company Emery Sapp and Sons told ABC17 that there is no new date set for the road preparation but they believe it will happen Tuesday night, depending on the weather.
UPDATE ON 5/15 AT 3:30 P.M. :The bridge slide has been postponed until further notice due to the impending rain set for Monday morning. However, construction crews will still prep the roads Sunday evening, still having one lane of I-70 in each direction closed. There is no new date for the slide at this time.
ORIGINAL STORY:The new Interstate 70 bridge at Garth Avenue is just the second bridge in Missouri to be slid into place from its nearby location. New bridges at Range Line Street and Business Loop will also be shifted into place this summer.
Prep work for the slide will start at 9 p.m. onSunday, May 15and will require one lane of I-70 in each direction to be closed until 5 a.m. Monday. The Garth bridge slide will start at about 7 a.m. onMonday, May 16. All work is weather permitting.
At the same time, the westbound I-70 on-ramp at Providence will be closed from 9 p.m.Sundayto 5 a.m.Monday, and Garth Avenue at I-70 will be closed from 9 p.m. onSundayto 9 p.m. onMonday.
One eastbound and one westbound lane of I-70, as well as the westbound I-70 on-ramp at Providence, will again be closed from 9 p.m. onThursdayto 5 a.m. onFridayto switch traffic back to the new westbound bridge.
Hydraulic jacks and about 15 bottles of dishwashing liquid will be used to move the 75-foot Garth bridge, which weighs 800,000 pounds or roughly the same as two jumbo jets. The dishwashing detergent is used as a lubricant to help slide the structure along stainless steel plates into its permanent place. It will take about 20 workers approximately 8 hours to move the bridge.
The first “sliding bridge” was Interstate 44 bridge over the Gasconade River in Laclede County. That bridge was built by the same contractor as the one building the I-70 bridges.
As of Sunday, MoDOT said Creasy Springs Road has reopened and is a right in, right out travel as drivers come off the westbound I-70 off-ramp.Drivers going east or west on Business Loop will not have access to Creasy Springs, but Creasy Springs drivers will be able to access Business Loop at the new roundabout there.
Range Line Street at Interstate 70 remains closed untilMay 24while the contractor builds a new interchange there.
