"Old Gravois Bridge" Waymark

Long Description:
The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis has prompted officials in Missouri to close a highway bridge near St. Louis that they were worried might soon fail. Garry Earls, director of the St. Louis County Department of Highways and Traffic, said that county officials had planned to close the span, known as the Old Gravois Bridge, later this summer anyway, after inspections found continuing deterioration. The 700-foot-long steel truss bridge carries Gravois Road over the Meramec River between Fenton and Sunset Hills, Mo., about 12 miles southeast of St. Louis.

“The horrors of that disaster obviously weren’t something we wanted to experience on a first-hand basis,” Mr. Earls said of the collapse in Minnesota. “This is an aged and decaying bridge that as facing closure in the very near future. Yesterday’s tragedy in Minneapolis made it clear to us that ‘better safe than sorry’ was the proper course of action. We moved our timetable accordingly.”

Earlier this year the county lowered the weight limit on the two-lane truss bridge, built in 1925, from five tons to three tons. But the limit was frequently ignored, Mr. Earls said: “It’s impossible to police a weight limit 24 hours a day, and unfortunately more than a few drivers took advantage of that. We were very concerned about heavier vehicles continuing to place what could well have become an unsustainable stress on the bridge.”

David Wrone, a highway department spokesman, said the bridge was inspected often by county engineers and outside consultants, most recently in July. “Various areas of that bridge had problems,” he said, including both the bridge deck and its approaches. There is a newer, wider bridge less a mile away that can handle the 9,500 or so vehicles that crossed the Old Gravois Bridge on an average day, Mr. Wrone said, so the old bridge will remain closed indefinitely. There are no current plans to repair or replace it. The Missouri State Highway Department said today that about one-third of the state’s 24,000 bridges are considered in need of major repairs.
~ The Lede/New York Times (visit link)

South County Times article (visit link)

KMOV story (visit link)

Original Use: Vehicle - Car / Truck Construction: Steel Condition: Poor See this website for more information: Not listed Date Built: Not listed Date Abandoned: Not listed Bridge Status - Orphaned or Adopted.: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   7/12/2009 uak_squirrelpie visited it 7/5/2009 OWLac11 visited it

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