The Galena Viaduct, also known as the Front Street Bridge, north of Galena, Kansas, recently received almost $400,000 in grants to finish its restoration.
The bridge recently received a federal $193,836 Community Development Block Grant and a $193,837 match from Cherokee County.
Cherokee County commissioner Pat Collins said the money will be used to refurbish the Galena Viaduct’s deck, its floor and its side railings. He hopes the repairs will be finished by fall.
Collins said he recognizes the historic and Route 66 value of the Galena Viaduct, but he indicated there also were pragmatic reasons to repair it. He said the bridge needed to be shored up so it could handle the weight of firetrucks. Closing the bridge would have forced firefighters to take miles-long detours to get to a fire in parts of north Galena.
Collins mentioned the Galena Viaduct, which was built in early 1920s, is the oldest bridge of more than 200 maintained by the county. He said it’s older than the more famous Marsh Arch Bridge, aka the Brush Creek Bridge or Rainbow Bridge, near Baxter Springs, Kansas.
“Mother Nature has taken its toll on it,” Collins said. “It’s had a few wrecks on it, too. I worked the last fatality there during the 1980s.”
Collins explained he once worked in law enforcement for Galena and Cherokee County. He said the bridge endured several drunken-driving wrecks because the legal drinking age in Kansas was 18 and nearby Missouri was 21 for a several years. He said the Missouri-Kansas state line less than a mile away had five taverns doing a brisk business, especially on weekends. Kansas raised its drinking age to 21 by the mid-1980s.
The bridge’s pillars and support structure were repaired in 2010, partly with a grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. More about the repairs a few years ago can be read here.
UPDATE 2/8/2016: The Joplin Globe and KODE-TV published stories about the viaduct getting those grants.
(Hat tip: Renee Charles)