67th Street Bridge Reconstruction
In 2019, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) tasked TREKK’s transportation group with design of the 67th Street bridge replacement over I-435 in our hometown of Kansas City, Missouri. 67th Street sits in the middle of a residential neighborhood with Swope Park and the Kansas City Zoo west of the bridge and other residential and commercial development east of the bridge. This bridge, while not a part of an interchange, is a vital connection to the Kansas City community that I-435 divides.
This project included replacement of a deteriorating bridge, realignment of the road, addition of retaining walls, guardrail and driveway reconstruction. Another concern for MoDOT that TREKK addressed was that the existing bridge did not provide adequate vertical clearance above I-435.
Design of this bridge was a cooperative effort between TREKK, MoDOT and the City of Kansas City, Missouri (City). Participation from the City was particularly important early in design development since 67th Street was to be included in the updated KC Bike Plan. All three parties agreed that a shared use path was to be included on the bridge to serve pedestrians and bicycles in the decades to come.
Another important component of this project was the utility coordination. This project site included power lines adjacent to the bridge, lighting, fiber along I-435 and a water line crossing underneath I-435. Most of these utilities could be left in place or could be relocated simply in the case of lighting. The exception to this was the waterline. The waterline was determined to need relocation since it conflicted with the proposed retaining walls. TREKK notified the City that this relocation would need to be coordinated. The City turned around and called back TREKK’s civil design department to design the waterline relocation.
The ability for the project design and waterline design to be coordinated in house at TREKK helped bring the project full circle to include the whole team. Additionally, the project site is within a 10-minute drive from the TREKK office so many staff members were able to check in on the project’s construction on their commute home from work.
