The Route 66 Association of Missouri plans to submit a formal proposal to the state by March 4 to take over ownership of the endangered Gasconade River Bridge near Hazelgreen.
The association decided to try to make the move during a special meeting Saturday.
The Missouri Department of Transportation has set a “drop-dead date” of April 20 for someone to find the closed bridge a new owner, or else it will be demolished.
The Lebanon-Laclede County Route 66 Society reported:
“We’re not committing to take ownership of the bridge; we’re committing to enter negotiations to take ownership of the bridge,” Rich Dinkela, president of the Route 66 Association of Missouri, said Saturday following a special board meeting to consider the plan. […]
Saturday’s special meeting of the Route 66 Association of Missouri board was its second this month to discuss the bridge. Secretary Judy Wallmark said afterward that the board voted to form a Bridge Committee to “develop a proposal that the Route 66 Association of Missouri will become the new owners of the Gasconade River Bridge, and send such proposal to the association board for concurrence” before forwarding it on to MoDOT by March 4. Dinkela will be committee chairman, with Wallmark, Joe Sonderman, Phillip Denton, Kip Welborn and Mark Norman as members.
Dinkela said his goal is to raise $100,000 for the bridge and use the $235,000 MoDOT has budgeted for its demolition to rehabilitate the structure. That’s not enough to fully repair the bridge — that would cost an estimated $2.5 million — but removing the deck would take less strain off the 90-year-old structure and reduces a liability problem as well.
An example of deck removal to keep a structure more stable is the Route 66 Bridge at Route 66 State Park near Eureka, Missouri.
State officials closed the bridge to traffic in December 2014 after an inspection revealed grave deterioration in the structure. MoDOT later built a new bridge a few yards away from the old bridge and Interstate 44.
(Postcard image of the Gasconade River Bridge near Hazelgreen, Missouri, courtesy of 66Postcards.com)