Ohio Street Bridge will remain closed

Jefferson City Public Work officials said the Ohio Street Bridge will remain closed during a meeting Thursday.

After a recent inspection by the Missouri Department of Transportation, the Jefferson City Public Works Department decided it was best that the bridge on Ohio Street, between Louisiana Avenue and South Boulevard, close to vehicle traffic. The bridge remains open to pedestrians and bikers.

“With that, we believed it was prudent to go ahead and close the bridge to all vehicular traffic and we’d leave it open to pedestrian access,” said Britt Smith, director of operations for the Department of Public Works.

MoDOT operations division director said the bridge was seeing serious deterioration. The weight limit was also lowered from 15 to five tons as a result of the inspection.

The city council will discuss what immediate next steps to take. Possible actions include repair, demolition and additional study.

However, Britt said it’s currently unclear where any repair funds would come from.

“Obviously, that money isn’t just laying around anywhere,” he said. “We’re willing to explore some options, but at this time, we don’t have any idea of where that money would come from.”