MoDOT: Lights may illuminate new river bridge
The new Mississippi River Bridge may be lighted if money is found.
The new Mississippi River bridge north of the Edward Jones Dome may be awash in lights when it opens.
Project Director Greg Horn of the Missouri Department of Transportation said today that that aesthetic lighting isn’t in the budget for the main span - the centerpiece of the $640 million bridge project. But an outside source of funding may be found to pay for the lights, which would be a combination of LED lights on the bridge towers and spotlights trained on the bridge cables. Depending on what light treatment is selected, the lights could cost $1 million to $6 million.
“Those things usually get funded by others,” Horn told the St. Louis Council of Construction Consumers this morning. “We’re going to put it in the design.”
Otherwise, the bridge will be mostly no frills.
Once built, the bridge will provide an Interstate 70 link between downtown St. Louis and the Metro East, easing traffic on the Poplar Street Bridge, Horn said. Poplar Street carries about 125,000 vehicles a day.
I like the idea. Think the skyline could use something like this.
It will look pretty but will not have enough lanes for the rush traffic demands. Thanks MODOT.
How about placing wind turbines on top of the towers to power the lights. They probably wouldn’t have to be too tall or large. Cool.
There was a story today that my dog has the carbon footprint of an SUV. The carbon police will not be happy until we all live in the dark, they will never allow this.
When is construction gonna start on this new bridge? Hope it not a ballpark village type project.
My over opinionated friend jjk ways in again. Unfortunately he has nothing relevant to add to the topic except a ridiculous politcal mini rant.
This is surprising to an extant since I expected someone like him to start wailing and foot stomping because precious tax dollars are going to improve infrastructure in our own country for a change.
OK a q for everyone: would YOU be willing to pay a toll to cover the cost of the lights? 60,000 vehicles a day, lets say a dollar each would be $60k per day. To fund the high estimate of $6 million would take a mere 100 days. And we could be certain that the “temporary” toll was really temporary. So what would you say? Are you willing to help “find” the money to finance the lights?
So, pretty similar to Zakim Bridge in Boston. Ironically, Zakim Bridge ended up in darkness last year, for lack of funds for illumination. Not sure if the lights are back on right now.
The bridge may have lights? I cant take the suspence. Will it or not? Why is MODOT so prominent in this paper? They should fill potholes and keep quiet like the good old days. Remember way back before they had the power to close highway 40 completely for over a year? They should be more like that.
Shouldn’t the bridge actually get built first? By the time it’s built we’ll have 24 hours of sunlight anyway according to the cap, tax, and cash extract crowd.