Martin Luther King Bridge (St. Louis)

Martin Luther King Bridge
MLK bridge from Eads Bridge Metro station, IL side
Other name(s)	Veterans Bridge
Carries	3 lanes (1 westbound and 2 eastbound) of Route 799
Crosses	Mississippi River
Locale	St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois
Maintained by	MoDOT, IDOT
Design	Cantilever bridge
Total length	4,009 feet (1,222 m)
Width	40 feet (12 m)
Longest span	962 feet (293 m)
Vertical clearance	19.4 feet (6 m)
Clearance below	98 feet (30 m)
Opened	1951
Coordinates	38°37′52″N 90°10′46″W / 38.63111°N 90.17944°W / 38.63111; -90.17944

The Martin Luther King Bridge (formerly known as the Veterans Bridge) in St. Louis is a cantilever truss bridge of about 4,000 feet (1,200 m) in total length across the Mississippi River, connecting St. Louis with East St. Louis, Illinois. The bridge serves as traffic relief connecting the concurrent freeways of Interstate 55, Interstate 70, Interstate 64, and U.S. Route 40 with the downtown streets of St. Louis.

History

The bridge was built in 1951 as the Veterans' Memorial Bridge to relieve congestion on the MacArthur Bridge to the south and was built as a toll bridge and was owned by the City of East St. Louis. At one time, it carried U.S. Route 40 and U.S. Route 66 across the river. In 1967, the bridge fell into disrepair when the (free) Poplar Street Bridge was constructed, and traffic began to use that route, leading to declining toll revenues.

Eventually, ownership was transferred dually to the Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation and the bridge was renamed after Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1987, the toll was removed. A bi-state project for about 24,000,000 USD to renovate the bridge at the behest of local civic and government leaders was carried out in the late 1980s. In the spring of 1989, the rebuilt bridge was reopened. In June 1990, the lighting of the bridge was completed by the St. Louis Port Authority. It is now an important contributor to the transportation needs of the region and the ambiance of the historic St. Louis riverfront.

On October 12, 2009 the bridge was closed in order to reduce the old four-lane configuration down to three wider lanes, install a waterproofing membrane over the bridge surface [1], and to install a concrete barrier to separate eastbound traffic from westbound. Over the previous six years there had been 38 serious accidents, including several involving multiple fatalities.[2] The $1.4 million project was aimed at eliminating these head-on collisions in the future. The bridge re-opened on October 21, 2009.

Gallery

• 

  Looking north along Interstate 70, with the interchange for the west end of the bridge in the middleground

• 

  Martin Luther King, Jr. Bridge

Route 799

Route 799
Location:	Illinois state line to I-70 in St. Louis
Length:	0.5 mi (0.8 km)

The Missouri half of the bridge is designated as unsigned Route 799 by MoDOT.^[1]

See also

• List of crossings of the Upper Mississippi River

References

1. ^ Missouri Department of Transportation, General Highway Map: St. Louis City, Revised - September 2005

External links

• Bridge info at Historic Bridges of the Midwest.
• maps.google.com zoomed in, hybrid mode