Dec. 10—Work to repair the Interstate 44 bridge over Main Street has been put on hold until spring.
David Mitchell, spokesman for the Southwest Missouri region of the Missouri Department of Transportation, said work was suspended because of weather conditions expected during the winter that would disrupt the construction.
Craig Switzer, transportation project manager for MoDOT, spoke to the Joplin City Council in January to outline a number of projects that were planned in the Joplin area this year. The repair of that bridge was one of those projects.
Interim repairs had been made on the bridge before the current major overhaul as the result of holes occurring in 2020 and 2021. The incident in 2021 involved a chunk of bridge decking falling onto Main Street.
A number of projects on state-owned streets and bridges were completed in the Joplin area by MoDOT in the last two years, and more are planned through 2027.
Next year, MoDOT will start a two-year project to make repairs on Seventh Street from Range Line Road to Schifferdecker Avenue.
The city of Joplin is planning corresponding work that is to include demolishing the condemned Pennsylvania Avenue bridge next to Seventh Street. The City Council last month approved a contract for engineering work to be done to plan that project.
The engineering work will include developing plans for relocation and repair of the Willow Branch stormwater drainage. The branch runs beneath downtown Joplin and part of that system would be moved to Seventh Street in the area of Pennsylvania Avenue and west to bypass an older section of the system.
The Pennsylvania Avenue bridge, located between Fifth and Seventh streets, was blocked to vehicle and pedestrian traffic in February 2019 after a state inspection found it to be structurally unsound. It is a concrete beam bridge built in 1929. It spanned Willow Branch and part of a warehouse at the time it was constructed. The warehouse building has been demolished since the bridge was closed.
The city also will reconfigure the intersection of Illinois Avenue at Seventh Street and do sidewalk repairs in some areas along Seventh Street as the state work is being done.
MoDOT also plans the future construction of a train bridge to be built over 32nd Street in 2027 to eliminate traffic blockages.
Also planned by the state that year will be replacement of the bridge on Main Street over Turkey Creek in the area of Murphy Boulevard.