Background / History
MoDOT unveiled the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Program in September 2006 to rehabilitate or replace 802 of the worst bridges in the state of Missouri. The original model called for a design-build-finance-maintain contract. Under that scenario, the successful team would have financed the project, completed design and construction within five years. Then they would have maintained the bridges in a satisfactory condition for an additional 25 years, during which they would have received availability payments tied to completion and bridge condition. MoDOT's payments would have been made from a portion of its annual Federal bridge funds allocation.
After going through the procurement process and receiving proposals, in September 2008, the Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission deemed that effort to be unaffordable due to the credit market crisis. Instead, the MHTC directed MoDOT to move in a different direction with the same goal -- the improvement of the same 802 bridges. MoDOT split out the 248 bridges that it saw as candidates for rehabilitation. Those bridges are being grouped by type, size or location and being contracted using a modified design-bid-build approach. More than 100 of those structures were completed in 2009. The remaining 554 bridges -- all replacements -- were packaged in a design-build contract and a second procurement was begun. To make the project affordable, the finance and maintenance requirements were removed from the request for proposal. MoDOT sold GARVEE bonds to finance the total program, with approximate annual payment of $50 million per year -- again coming from its Federal bridge funds.
In May of 2009, MoDOT awarded the design-build contract to KTU Constructors, a joint venture of Kiewit Western Co., Traylor Bros. Inc., and United Contractors, Inc. They are joined by design partners HNTB Corporation and The LPA Group, Inc.
Planning efforts anticipate a variety of bridge replacement strategies including the use of cored slab, box beam, steel girder, flat slab, and reinforced concrete box culverts. 493 "Form R Bridges" on low volume routes will require the bridges to be closed during construction. For each of the remaining 61 "Form T Bridges" , bridge construction will be completed utilizing a complete closure, staged construction or bypasses to minimize impacts to travel.
On April 23, 2009 MoDOT announced the successful completion of the first bridge repaired under the Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program. The entire program, the largest bridge improvement project in Missouri history, will be completed by December 31, 2013.
