SUNRISE BEACH, Mo. – One-third of the structural steel has now been erected on the new Hurricane Deck Bridge in Sunrise Beach. The delivery of the massive steel girders has intermittently stopped traffic on Highway 5, for approximately 15 minutes at a time, and will continue to interrupt traffic until all 68 girders are delivered. Four girders were brought in last week.
Once the girders are unloaded, they are staged on a barge below the bridge and then placed on the piers. According to American Bridge Field Engineer Kevin Lynch, each of the 135-foot girders will span from pier to pier, all the way across the Lake. There are four piers on land and eight in the water.
After all the girders are erected, crews will lay a steel deck on the bridge, over which will be poured the concrete surface of the bridge deck. A small portion of the roadway surface on the north side of the bridge has already been completed, near the Deepwater Inn.
The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) has contracted with the American Bridge Company to replace the existing Hurricane Deck Bridge with a traditional-type girder bridge: a 12-pier concrete structure to the east of the existing bridge. The new, wider bridge will be equipped with two 12-foot lanes and two seven-foot shoulders. It is projected to cost $32.3 million.
The old bridge will be demolished completely. First, the barrier wall and roadway surface of the old bridge will be cut out and hauled away on land. The rest of the old bridge will then be dismantled and dropped into the Lake with explosives. The deepest part of the Lake under the bridge is approximately 85 feet.
“We appreciate the public’s patience and general awareness of the project, and we ask you to focus on the road,” Lynch said.
The new bridge is expected to open near the end of 2013. The entire project, including demolition of the existing structure, is contracted to be completed in 2014.
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