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CAT Tracks for January 18, 2012
US 60/62 CAIRO-MO BRIDGE UPDATE |
From the KFVS TV Channel 12...
CHARLESTON, MO (KFVS) - It's been closed for more than a year because it needed to be repaired. The US 60/62 bridge takes you from southern Illinois to southeast Missouri.
Illinois Department of Transportation Engineer Doug Helfrich says more than a year ago they closed the bridge to replace steel members along the floor beams. Helfrich says they got that part of the job done early. But he adds as crews worked on those repairs more problems came to light.
"We noticed that the concrete adjacent to the joints had deteriorated and that work, again, that was all added work to the contract, because its concrete, we have temperature requirements," Helfrich said.
Helfrich says the temperature has to be at least 40 degrees or warmer. He adds crews have taken advantage of the mild winter and hopes to get more concrete poured this week.
The originally cost to tax payers was $1.6 million. But the extra repairs adds an extra $800,000 to the price tag.
Helfrich says if the mild temps stick around he hopes to see the bridge re-open by the end of the month.