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The north U.S. 169 hwy bridge over Interstate 29 has been singled out as being in need of serious repair.

Northwest Missouri’s poorest bridges will be improved in the future, but the process of deciding what comes first remains to be done.

But it’s assured that the region contains a majority of the state’s most structurally deficient bridges, according to Missouri Department of Transportation District 1 Engineer Don Wichern. The state has identified about 1,100 bridges that are in poor or serious condition.

“These are all our worst bridges,” he said.

The Missouri Highways and Transportation Commission recently unveiled plans to improve 802 of the state’s worst bridges in five years in its Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Program. A draft of the program calls for 15 regional bridges to be included in the first round of 100 of 248 structures that will be redecked, Mr. Wichern said. Construction is scheduled to begin in early 2009.

“That (redecking) number could change, but it shouldn’t change by much,” he said. “We’re going to keep them safe and operational.”

Three of the initial projects are located in Buchanan County and another is in Andrew County. One of the identifiable candidates is the overpass on U.S. Highway 169 over Interstate 29 in Buchanan County — where Gov. Matt Blunt appeared a year ago to sign legislation aimed at bridge improvements. That bridge in particular, built in 1962, is one of the state’s oldest overpasses and has received repeated patching.

“It’s still safe,” Mr. Wichern asserted.

A schedule of which bridges will be tackled first is still uncertain, he said. Another likely candidate for redecking is the U.S. Business Highway 71 South span over I-29.

“We’re trying to group them together within a geographic region to get the best price possible,” he said. “They’re still finalizing the list to make it as efficient as possible.”

A total of 107 out of 554 Missouri bridges to be replaced outright are located in the 12-county district. Bids are currently set to be awarded late next spring.

The sale of bonds will help MoDOT finance the project, with annual payments of about $50 million. The agency will use roughly one-third of the federal bridge placement funds it receives annually for the payments.

Ray Scherer can be reached

at rscherer@npgco.com.