County commissioners received an engineering proposal Thursday morning from Spencer Jones of Great River Engineering in Springfield to do refurbishing of the Devil’s Elbow Bridge over the Big Piney River.
That’s a historic bridge dating back to 1923 and is one of the oldest remaining bridges on the original alignment of Route 66.
“We’ve been involved with this project since December 2001 when we went out and made an inspection of some of the parts of the bridge that had been corroded and made recommendations on repairs,” Jones said. “There’s a lot of history to this bridge. We don’t often get a chance to work on a project like this because often bridges like this are replaced rather than rehabilitated.”
Commissioner Bill Farnham said the Devil’s Elbow Bridge project, which is expected to cost $1.6 million, would have been dead in the water without Jones’ prior efforts to help Pulaski County obtain funding.
There’s no way Pulaski County can pay $1.6 million to refurbish a bridge, so the success of the project depends on assembling a series of grants from many different sources to begin the project. Farnham said Jones made a presentation at Willow Springs to a regional group for the Missouri Department of Transportation that was responsible for a key part of the funding.
“This guy really deserves a lot of credit. When we went in, we were low man on the totem pole, but with his PowerPoint presentation, he won the day,” Farnham said. “He put such a persuasive presentation together that he just wowed the whole audience.”
Jones was somewhat more modest.
“It was a joint effort, but yes, we did knock their socks off,” Jones said.
“I think we leave no stone unturned as far as trying to recruit funding,” Jones said. “Not just in this county but also many other counties, a project like this is almost undoable with the assets you have available.”
Presiding Commissioner Bill Ransdall said he’s concerned by some parts of the report submitted by Jones.
“You say here in this report that if repairs are not done, the bridge will be closed to traffic. How big of a threat is this, and how long do we have?” Ransdall asked.
Jones said the Devil’s Elbow Bridge is inspected every other year by Missouri Department of Transportation officials as part of their regular checks.
“If there were any critical issue, they would red flag it and then you would have to do your own inspections more regularly,” Jones said. “Based on the state’s inspection schedule, it’s not red-flagged but it is definitely something that is being looked at.”
Ransdall wanted more details.
“Looking at the close ups of that damage, it looks pretty bad, and I’d be concerned that it will be red-flagged,” Ransdall said. “I wouldn’t want to run a loaded dump truck across it.”
The bridge already has a weight limit on it, Jones said, and heavy trucks and tour buses can’t use it. That’s not a major problem for truck transportation because Interstate 44 and Highway Z are also available for heavy traffic, but Pulaski County Tourism Bureau board members have already expressed concerns that tour buses can’t use the original alignment of Route 66 and have to use a later alignment along Highway Z instead. The realignment of Route 66 followed a major highway project known as the Hooker Cut that tore out the center of a high hill, bypassed Devil’s Elbow, and created the four-late road that’s today known as Highway Z.
Even with reduced traffic, the Devil’s Elbow Bridge isn’t getting any better.
“The rate deterioration is increasing, and this is the time to do something,” Jones said. “It’s not going to get any cheaper.”
Losing the Devil’s Elbow Bridge would cut off much of the traffic to the Elbow Inn, a bar and grill located in Devil’s Elbow that has become a tourist destination. Showing the visitor’s book at the Elbow Inn with signatures from all over the world as well as all over the United States was a factor that convinced MoDOT officials to make bridge grants a priority, Farnham said.
“It is amazing how many people come through this county on Route 66 and travel through there,” Farnham said.