Update given on City Lake Bridge

The Fredericktown City Council met for its bi-monthly meeting last week where a question from the public sparked an update on the bridge on City Lake Road over Village Creek.

Cheryl Brulotte took advantage of the time allowed for public communications and remarks during the meeting by asking about the bridge. 

“I was just wondering about the bridge on City Lake Road,” Brulotte said. “What is happening to it?”

Brulotte said she lives at the top of the hill and notices a lot of cars still try to come through and it puts a strain on the Meals on Wheels deliveries.

City Engineer Tim Baer said the city is currently looking at the bridge and, an issue has come up delaying the project.

“The opening in that bridge is fairly small compared to the rest of the creek and there’s a big scour hole right underneath the bridge,” Baer said. “If you ever noticed when you drove over it if you look downstream it’s really shallow and you look upstream it’s fairly shallow but right underneath, because of the way the water comes through there, it kind of scours that out.”

Baer said they are concerned about the abutments and what they may find underneath the bridge due to the washed-out areas.

“So before we spend a lot of money fixing the bridge, we want to get a good look at the foundation of those abutments,” Baer said. 

Baer said they attempted to pump the water out and look at them last week but due to a rain shower their efforts were not successful, and they plan to try again with a larger pump next week.

“We’ll get it pumped out, get a look at those foundations and then hopefully it will be where we can get in there, shore things up and still make everything to work,” Baer said.

The initial reason for the closure was due to a Missouri Department of Transportation inspection.

“The issue we had was MoDOT had come down and did an inspection on the bridge and said it wasn’t safe because of the side rails on there, so we are going to cut those off and put some new guard rails on,” Baer said. “We are kind of held up until we can get a look at those foundations. Beyond that we have it pretty well ready to go.”

Baer said once the question about the foundations are answered, they will be able to send the project out for bid. By the time the work is contracted and finished, it could be a couple more months.

After Baer’s update on the bridge, Alderman Rick Polete mentioned he has been hearing concerns about the bridge on Highway Z being closed and that complaints have been directed toward the city in some cases. Polete said he would like to let the people know the city had nothing to do with the closure and that the decision came from MoDOT.

The next meeting of the Fredericktown City Council will be Aug. 27, following the 5:30 p.m. work session at city hall.

The Fredericktown City Council hears an update on repairing the bridge on City Lake Road over Village Creek, which has been closed since January.

Victoria Kemper is a reporter for the Daily Journal. She can be reached at 573-783-3366 or at vkemper@democratnewsonline.com