The premium paid off.

The Missouri Department of Transportation will reopen three bridges on Highway 34 on Aug. 17 after a three-month closure. The bridges cross the Whitewater Overflow, the Whitewater River and Byrd Creek.

Southeast regional field engineer Andy Meyer said MoDOT paid a premium to ensure bridges would be done quickly to reduce inconvenience for motorists.

"We gave the contractors a limit of 100 days to finish each of the bridges because a lot of people use those roads to get back and forth to work every day," Meyer said. "That's quick, so we paid extra to make sure we could deliver those results to the public."

Assistant resident engineer David Wyman said the bridges' construction will be complete by the time school starts in Jackson.

"We've had some difficulties and issues with the bridges' underground structures, but we're on schedule," Wyman said. "We told people we would have the bridges torn down starting when school let out and have them open by the time school started again."

The bridges were part of MoDOT's $475 million Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program, which scheduled 802 of the state's thousands of bridges to either be improved or rebuilt over five years.

Of the 802 projects, 491 are complete. In Southeast Missouri, 12 bridges are under construction, 17 more are scheduled for completion by the end of the year, and 87 have been completed.

"We're constantly working on at least 12 different bridges all over the state at any given time," Meyer said.

Meyer said a number of bridges are set to reopen this week, including the U.S. 61 bridge at Apple Creek.

Construction on U.S. 60 bridges on between Dexter, Mo., and Sikeston, Mo., will start after the Highway 34 bridges reopen.

"We're doing those bridges in stages," Meyer said. "We won't completely close that road because it gets so much traffic. We don't want to inconvenience motorists, so we're going to alternate lane closings."

MoDOT's standards for short construction times has put the program ahead of schedule, and Meyer said construction on all of the bridges will be complete before the December 2013 deadline.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony will be at 9 a.m. Aug. 17 beneath the Whitewater Overflow bridge, with parking available at Bollinger Mill.

"We're using the ribbon-cutting ceremony as a celebration, really, of our success on this program," Meyer said. "Back in March, April and May, people in Cape Girardeau and Bollinger County would shake their heads and laugh when we told them these bridges would be done in 100 days, but we delivered."

ssemmler@semissourian.com

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