MoDOT considers fixes for Lake Taneycomo Bridge

About 250 individuals, business owners and government and public officials attended the monthly meeting of Partners in Progress at the Keeter Center at Point Lookout. The city of Hollister and MoDOT have been holding the regularly scheduled public meetings to discuss highway updates since 2002.

While two proposed projects – a roundabout at the east end of the bridge and an east-west corridor connecting Hollister and Highway 76 – were also on the agenda, it was the ailing 75-year-old Lake Taneycomo Bridge that was the main topic.

Kirk Juranas, MoDOT District 8 Engineer, said the five-arch, open-span bridge “is the only one of its kind in Missouri. It is in poor to extra-poor condition. We’ve just started an investigation on how to fix this bridge.”

A proposal from MoDOT recommends closing the bridge completely to traffic for up to a year to repair concrete deterioration under its deck. Juranas said $3.5 million in funding would be available and a contractor would be selected in 2008, with work ongoing in 2009.

Juranas said the cost of building a new bridge parallel to the existing one would cost $7 million to $12 million.

“It would be a little longer bridge and require some additional road work,” he said.

Chad Zickefoose, MoDOT’s district transportation project manager, said MoDOT also looked at building a parallel bridge upstream five or six years ago that would cost an estimated $20 million. That site, at Branson Landing, is no longer available.

For now, funding and time are the issues, Juranas said.

“We’ve got $3.5 million for a lake crossing,” Juranas said. “We’re working from that. … If we don’t do something in the next five to six years, we’re going to have to close it.”

In the meantime, as a temporary fix, MoDOT plans to grind off the top inch of the pavement and lay a driving surface late this summer.

Jeff Justus, who attended the meeting as a board member for the Downtown Branson Main Street Association, is concerned about the possible closing of the bridge.

“What do you do when you have an artery and you cut it off?” he asked, adding that he wants to hear some more discussion.

“I assume it’s not a done deal,” he said. “We need to be interested citizens and be sure what is done is for everybody and not for just a few people.”

If MoDOT closes the bridge, drivers heading to downtown Branson from East Highway 76 would be rerouted through downtown Hollister.

This proposal concerns Bob Schanz, who said at the meeting that other area residents would take their business to Hollister, damaging commerce in downtown Branson.

The new route certainly would take Dale Sanders longer to get to work. He crosses the Lake Taneycomo Bridge twice a day to and from his American Family Insurance office in downtown Branson.

“It will add another 35 minutes a day to our drive,” he said. “I think there are other solutions they haven’t explored. It’s just a Band-Aid.”

Sanders prefers the option of constructing a new bridge.

“If it costs us $20 million (now), what’s it going to cost us 20 years from now?” he asked. “They’re trying to do a plan with the money they have. That’s why the local governments have to get involved.”

Rick Ziegenfuss, Hollister city administrator, suggested that individuals continue visiting with MoDOT officials and referred them to a comment sheet for suggestions to be turned in by Aug. 2.

“We understand there is a business impact to construction,” Ziegenfuss said. “MoDOT is working very hard with us and have shown us their commitment to the area.”