Dec. 10 – Repair work on the Interstate 44 bridge over Main Street is suspended until the spring.
David Mitchell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Southwest Missouri region, said work was suspended due to weather conditions expected during the winter that would disrupt construction.
Craig Switzer, transportation project manager for MoDOT, spoke to the Joplin City Council in January to outline some of the projects planned in the Joplin area this year. The repair of that bridge was one of those projects.
Before the current major overhaul, interim repairs had been made to the bridge due to holes in 2020 and 2021. The 2021 incident caused a piece of bridge deck to fall onto Main Street.
MoDOT has completed a number of projects on state-owned streets and bridges in the Joplin area over the past two years, with more planned through 2027.
Next year, MoDOT will begin a two-year project to make repairs on Seventh Street, from Range Line Road to Schifferdecker Avenue.
The City of Joplin is planning corresponding work, including the demolition of the condemned Pennsylvania Avenue bridge next to Seventh Street. The City Council last month approved a contract for the engineering work to be done to plan that project.
The engineering work includes developing plans for relocating and repairing stormwater drainage in the Willow Branch. The branch runs under downtown Joplin and part of that system would be moved to Seventh Street near Pennsylvania Avenue and west to bypass an older portion of the system.
The Pennsylvania Avenue Bridge, located between Fifth and Seventh streets, was blocked to vehicular and pedestrian traffic in February 2019 after a state inspection found it to be structurally unsound. It is a concrete beam bridge built in 1929. When it was built, it spanned Willow Branch and was part of a warehouse. The warehouse has been demolished since the bridge was closed.
The city will also reconfigure the intersection of Illinois Avenue at Seventh Street and make sidewalk repairs in some areas along Seventh Street while the state work is carried out.
MoDOT is also planning the future construction of a train bridge to be built over 32nd Street in 2027 to clear traffic blockages.
Also planned by the state that year will be the replacement of the Main Street bridge over Turkey Creek in the area of Murphy Boulevard.
