Construction Begins on New Us-77 Bridge Over Big Blue River in Blue Rapids

On Tuesday, August 9, a bridge replacement project began on US-77 over the Big Blue River located one-half mile east of the city of Blue Rapids in Marshall County. The new bridge and realigned US-77 roadway will be built just east of the existing bridge and highway, along with a portion of K-9 that will be realigned to tie into the new roadway. See the attached map for an aerial view of the new alignment. Work will take place daily during daylight hours throughout the project duration.

Most of the project construction work will take place off the highway adjacent to the existing bridge and US-77 roadway, thus drivers should expect little to no delays throughout the project duration. Sometime in late spring/early summer 2012, traffic on K-9 will be detoured while the roadway is reconstructed to tie into the new US-77 alignment. We will issue a news release under separate cover in advance of the K-9 closure scheduled for next year.

The new US-77 bridge will be 40-foot wide, with two 12-foot lanes and 8-foot shoulders, providing more room for today’s wider vehicles and it will have shorter bridge railings as well. In addition, project work will include a deceleration lane for northbound drivers turning east onto K-9 and an acceleration lane for eastbound drivers on K-9 turning north onto US-77.

United Contractors Inc. (Johnston, Iowa) is the primary contractor on this bridge replacement project with a total contract cost of $7.558 million. Project work is scheduled to be completed in late July 2012, weather permitting.

This project is funded by T-WORKS, the transportation program passed by the Kansas Legislature in May 2010. Find out more about this and other T-WORKS projects at: http://kdotapp.ksdot.org/TWorks/.