Last week, beams were set on a bridge on Route U in Pettis County, near Sedalia. No big deal, really, since this scene has been repeated hundreds of times as MoDOT has completed 314 new bridges since the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Program got rolling in April 2009.
But this one was a little different, since one of the beams was displayed at the State Fair in Sedalia in August. Visitors to MoDOT's Highway Gardens were encouraged to sign the beam to demonstrate their support for new bridges in Missouri. And sign it they did ... by the thousands. One lady who lived nearby the bridge site signed it on the bottom "so that I can see it when I float underneath it next summer."
Now the beam is at its final resting place in a multi-span bridge over Spring Fork Creek. The latest signature added to the structure, as you'll see in the picture, is from one of the construction workers at the site. He and others like him will be plenty busy in 2011, when MoDOT and its design-build contractor KTU Constructors plan to build more than 300 new bridges across the state.
