While ongoing construction on Interstate 70 remains a headache for local residents, work is progressing on improvements along the highway, with officials marking a significant milestone in Jonesburg on July 30.

State and local officials, along with other project stakeholders, cut a ribbon to celebrate the completion of the new bridge at Routes E/Y and the Interstate 70 interchange.

Work began this spring on the project to replace the previous bridge, which was built in 1961, according to Kevin James, district engineer for the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Northeast District.

“This is another bridge project that’s part of the overall improvements on the I-70 corridor across the state of Missouri, so it’s exciting to see these improvements take place across the state,” said James, who introduced the other speakers at the ribbon cutting.

These included Jonesburg Mayor Bob Sellenriek, who thanked contractor Emery Sapp & Sons for their work on the project.

“We’ve worked with Emery Sapp & Sons for probably, off and on, 25 years,” Sellenriek said. “They’ve grown so much, it’s unbelievable. Their quality of work and taking care of it, doing it right, is unbelievable.”

The new bridge features 12-foot driving lanes and 10-foot shoulders. James noted that the bridge will also be able to accommodate the widening of I-70 to three lanes, which is expected to begin between Warrenton and Kingdom City next year.

“We have short-listed four contractors that are competing for that contract,” said Eric Kopinski, statewide director for MoDOT’s Improve I-70 program.
MoDOT will announce more details of the project and which bidder is awarded the contract in November, Kopinski said.

“So right now they’re in a competition with our fixed budget to see what improvements they can get. We know they will add the third lane across that stretch of 43 miles, but what other improvements can we get? And one of the key pinch points is High Hill,” he said. “With the railroad being there and some right-of-way constraints, that’s kind of one of the challenging areas.”

Kopinski and James both said the Highway 47 bridge in Warrenton is proceeding on schedule to be completed this month.

“We’re a little closer to opening the Route 47 bridge in Warrenton, and that will be a big deal,” said Kopinski. “Just similar to this one, we know that it’s a big impact in Warrenton, but crews are working really aggressively to get that open quickly. They just poured the bridge deck there and then work will progress, so we think we’re a few weeks away from opening that interchange back up.”

Montgomery County Presiding Commissioner Ryan Poston said he understood that the Jonesburg bridge construction was an inconvenience for residents because it was an inconvenience for him personally.

“I go to church right over right down the street (from the overpass),” Poston told those in attendance at the ribbon cutting. “It sure is nice to have this bridge back in when me and my wife are running late to church, so thank you MoDOT and thank you everybody who got this done.”

Brian Burks, Emery Sapp & Sons vice president, also spoke at the event. He said he was thrilled to see the project get done.

“To my team, I’m especially proud that we not only completed this ahead of schedule, but we never lost sight of what mattered most: Everyone went home safely at the end of each day,” he said. “We can finish every project ahead of schedule, and that’s quite the accomplishment, but finishing it without a safety incident is an even greater one.”

The various speakers offered thanks all around to everyone who made the bridge project happen, as well as the residents who were inconvenienced by construction.

“I know we’re a little late doing it,” Sellenriek said of the project. “We should have done it 20 years ago but the funding wasn’t there, and so I really appreciate MoDOT, their engineering, the contractors and everybody that’s worked to make this thing possible.”

Kopinski said the Jonesburg bridge was “too critical to the local economy, to the local citizens, to the local businesses” for it to remain closed longer than absolutely necessary. MoDOT is currently completing about $2 million worth of work on I-70 every day, “so there’s a lot of impacts but we’re moving very quickly to keep progress going,” he said.

“Thank you for everyone’s effort,” Kopinski said. “Thank you for putting up with us during the construction. This is going to be great for the local area for decades to come.”