MoDOT

The aging Grand Avenue bridge over Interstate 670 will have to be replaced, the Missouri Department of Transportation announced Friday.

The bridge has been closed since May 6, when small pieces of concrete started falling off of it, District Engineer Dan Niec says.

It cannot be repaired.

“The current design of that bridge was modern for that time, for that era, when it was built back in the ’60s,” Niec says. “Those types of bridges are no longer built.”

Salt gets all the credit for de-icing our roads during wintry weather, but it turns out it’s not a solo operation. The Kansas City office of the Missouri Department of Transportation says beet juice also plays an important part in melting that troublesome ice.

We’ll get to what the beet juice actually does — but first let’s find out where it comes from.

Brian Kidwell walks along the old Manchester Bridge as Interstate 70 traffic whizzes past on the newly opened span.

He points to a six-inch hole in the concrete. There’s nothing but sky beneath the pothole.

“It’s like playing Whack-A-Mole,” says Kidwell, the Missouri Department of Transportation’s assistant district engineer for Kansas City. “You go out, you fix a patch, you get off of it. Next week, there’s another area, another area.”

Voters will be asked on the Aug. 5 Missouri ballot if they want to increase the statewide sales tax by ¾ of a cent for 10 years. The money will be used to improve statewide transit infrastructure including roads and highways, bridges and public transit projects. The money raised will not be allowed to be used on any other kinds of projects.

Ballot language:

Kansas Citians are pretty accustomed to snow days after the past 12 months.

A year ago, a winter storm clobbered Kansas City with 20.5 inches of snow.

The February snowfall, which made it into the record books at the National Weather Service,  preceded several other severe snow storms that hit Kansas City in 2013.

Missoui Governor Jay Nixon, a Democrat, delivered a mixed report card Friday on the state budget and other bills passed by the Republican-controlled Missouri General Assembly this week.

While he complimented lawmakers for increasing funding for K-12 schools and higher education, he also criticized them for passing legislation that would cut state income tax rates for individuals and corporations.  He told reporters that the bill would gut state revenues by more than $800 million.

A so-called “Blue Ribbon” committee created by the Missouri House to examine the state’s transportation needs has released its report, one day before the start of this year’s legislative session.  But the House Speaker doesn’t agree with some of the options panel members endorsed.

Those options include raising either the state’s fuel tax or creating a sales tax dedicated to transportation needs.  House Speaker Tim Jones says he prefers exploring options that are “revenue neutral.”

The Missouri Department of Transportation is swift to react to a new regulation prohibiting drivers of large commercial vehicles from using cell phones. 

The Missouri agency says the rule from the National Transportation Safety Board will be enforced effective January 3rd.  It will prohibit truck and bus drivers from reaching for, holding or dialing any mobile phone while they are  behind the wheel of the moving vehicle.

Kansas City, Mo. – The new Missouri River bridge replacing the Paseo span will be close enough to completion to carry traffic by year's end.

MoDot will start shifting lanes of traffic from the Paseo to the Bond Bridge by fall. Highway officials say the Bond won't be finished until next year, but at least one northbound lane should be open by Christmas.

Most visible work now is installing cables hooking the highly visible pylon to the floor of the new bridge. The pylon stands more than 300 feet tall and supports the entire structure.