KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Nine Kansas City, Missouri-area bridges are slated to receive nearly $40 million for repair or replacement, U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II announced earlier this week.
The Department of Transportation awarded the nine bridges $39.9 million from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed with bipartisan support in 2021.
Several of the bridges serve important roles in traffic patterns across the city, including the Roanoke Parkway and Belleview Avenue bridges across Brush Creek just to the west of the County Club Plaza.
In a release announcing the funding, Cleaver said the bridges combine to carry almost 53,000 vehicles per day and that all nine bridges either have load restrictions, are rated as poor or will be rated as poor within a few years.
The nine bridges have an average age of 81 years, Cleaver said.
“The impacts of having this many load-restricted bridges in one region ripples throughout the community and often creates an outsized burden on the region’s vulnerable populations,” Cleaver wrote in a March 2024 letter to USDOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “The nine bridges need replacement to remove limitations on mobility and improve safety in the region.”
A complete list of bridges:
- NE 112th Street over Fishing River
- NE Pleasant Valley Road over Big Shoal Creek
- E. 12th Street over Big Blue River
- Benton Boulevard over Brush Creek
- Belleview Avenue over Brush Creek
- Roanoke Parkway over Brush Creek
- Elmwood Avenue over Brush Creek
- Gregory Boulevard over Big Blue River
- Hillcrest Road over Small Creek
“Not only will this $40 million investment increase traffic safety and alleviate congestion for Missouri drivers, it will drive further economic development and create good-paying jobs for workers in the region,” Cleaver said in an announcement Monday. “While I may have been the only Representative from Missouri to support the law that made this funding possible, I hope we can all celebrate the benefits it continues to bring to Missouri families.”
A timeline for construction and completion wasn’t immediately available.
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