MoDOT Forgets to Think?

[US71]

I received this little news blurb from MoDOT today:

Barton County - The Route 126 bridge over North Fork Spring River west of Route 71 will close March 7 for replacement as part of MoDOT's Safe & Sound Bridge program. The bridge will be closed until early May. The official detour route is Route J to Route H to Route 71.

Many of you may recall that MO 126 was closed much of last year to construct the US 71/MO 126 Interchange. Now, 126 is being closed again, which begs the question: why didn't they do this all at the same time?  


UPDATE (6-2011) : the new bridge is finished and it looks like a piece of crap. It's not much wider than the old Pony Truss and the uneven road grade remains unchanged. . Looks like it was slapped together in a hurry. 

[kharvey10]

typical MoDOT planning

[Scott5114]

Well this is being done as part of the Safe & Sound bridge program. Perhaps there was no funding for this bridge in that program tat the time? The state wanted to split the project into two parts to encourage more competitive bids? They wanted to amortize the costs over two separate years instead of sinking a larger amount into one large project?

Really, there's all sorts of logical reasons for that.

[ShawnP]

Safe and Sound came along before the interchange project.