By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Renovations on the Cook Road bridge in St. Joseph will cause a large portion I-29 within the city limits to shutdown much of tomorrow.
Missouri Department of Transportation district engineer Marty Liles says to keep work on track the contractor will close I-29 to transport bridge pilings to the site.
"If you're traveling from the north, going south on I-29, up at the Highway 71/229 Interchange, traffic will be detoured onto I-229 to go south," Liles tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "If you're coming from say Kansas City and going north on I-29, you'll be detoured onto I-229 to the north at that point."
The closure is expected to last through tomorrow from 4am to 7pm.
Liles says the renovation project is completely removing the exisiting bridge and replacing it
"So, it's a redecking, but with that it also includes a new sidewalk on the south side," Liles explains. "So, when it's all said and done it will be a new bridge deck with a sidewalk."
Liles says weather could always play a factor with the contractor monitoring it closely.
"Right now, it looks like the rain is kind of holding off and the contractor still thinks he can get that done in an ample amount of time on that," Liles says. "So, we don't anticipate any additional time that's needed with it, but it really depends on how much additional rain that we get and how bad the weather comes in."
I-29 will be closed to northbound traffic from the Frederick Boulevard exit to the US Highway 36 exit. I-29 will be closed southbound from the Business Route 71/ US Highway 59 to US 169 exit at Rochester Road from 4am to 7pm tomorrow.
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