ST. LOUIS — St. Louis drivers, brace yourselves. The Missouri Department of Transportation will begin work on a major Interstate 55 project that will take three years to complete.
As of Friday, the closures are starting sooner than first planned.
Thirteen bridges along I-55 between I-44 and Lindbergh Boulevard will be either re-decked or rehabbed.
Road work now begins Sunday, April 3 due to rain in the forecast early next week. Closures were originally set to begin Monday.
At 8 a.m. Sunday, MoDOT crews will close two southbound I-55 lanes between I-44 and Potomac Avenue — a roughly 1 1/2-mile stretch through south city near the downtown St. Louis area.
Once the lanes are closed, two northbound lanes will shift drivers into the southbound area. Three ramps will close: from Lafayette to southbound I-55, 3200 Broadway (Exit 206B) and Arsenal (Exit 206C).
All of the changes will be in place for the Monday morning commute.
The lane shift will continue for the rest of 2022.
When work is finished on the northbound bridges, a similar lane shift will happen in 2023 to allow crews to work on the southbound bridges.
"This is not the first time we have had to refresh our bridges," said St. Louis area engineer for MoDOT Jen Wade. "We just did it on I-44 and now it's time for the I-55 bridges to get the same treatment."
Bridge work is labor intensive and will require major traffic shifts.
"We want it to be not impactful at all," Wade told 5 On Your Side, "but when you are dealing with bridges, it just is."
MoDOT's website states many of the bridges are 55-60 years old and "need to have significant maintenance or reconstruction to ensure that they remain operational and safe to use for the future."
Wade said most bridge construction requires removing all of the concrete surface, down to the girders and replacing it.
"In order to do that, we really have to close all the lanes on one direction of the highway," she explained.
Work begins on the north end of I-55 and will progressively move south. Over the next three years, St. Louisans will see numerous projects up and down the corridor.
Resurfacing areas of I-55 is also part of the project.
MODOT will set up barriers for that sometime this year, once the work on the bridges is done. The resurfacing portion of the project will start south of Virginia Avenue.
While three years seems like a long time, Wade said it's the best MoDOT can do.
"We're trying to condense this schedule as much as we can to get this corridor back up and flowing as soon as possible," she said.
For additional details and updates on the construction timeline, visit MoDOT's I-55 bridge project page here.