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About 25 local leaders celebrated the end of a project that had a long and often frustrating journey.

On Monday, June 1, Clay County and city of Smithville officials as well as engineering and construction leaders and Rep. Doug Ervin, R-Kearney, honored the re-opening of the 180th Street bridge, which was replaced.

“This projects shows that when government entities work together, you can accomplish a lot,” Ed Quick, Clay County Commission’s presiding commissioner, said before joining Smithville Mayor Carol Troutwine in cutting a red ribbon near the new bridge. “A lot of people have been involved in this over a long period of time. I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to everyone.”

“I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to all the taxpayers. They’re the ones who funded all of this,” Troutwine said.

The project closed 180th Street between U.S. Highway 169 and Missouri Route F from last December until the week before Memorial Day. The road and bridge serve as a main path to Smithville Lake and subdivisions in the area.

The old bridge had one lane, no guardrail and a 5-ton weight limit. The new bridge doesn’t have a weight limit, is much larger, much safer and more convenient. School buses, emergency and construction vehicles had to take detours to serve the area because of the weight limit.

Former county highway administrator Jim McQuerrey, who retired last year, came out for the celebration.

“This was about the hardest project I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “It took close to a year just to take care of all the right-of-way issues.”

Former County Commissioner Craig Porter added, “It might have been longer than a year.”

All in all, from the discussion phase to completion of construction, the project was more than 10 years in the making.

Changing plans, changing costs, land acquisition issues and disputes over who paid for what, safety and access created snags along the way.

The Missouri Department of Transportation, city of Smithville and Clay County worked together to fund the bridge replacement.

A department of transportation grant covered $464,619, or 80 percent, of the $579,524 bridge replacement project cost. The city and county shared the remaining 20 percent, with the city paying $90,905 and Clay County paying $25,000.

The county commission awarded the project bid to Widel Inc. of Blackwater. McDonald & Warger of Liberty was the project engineer.

“This has been on the agenda for so long. It was almost a permanent agenda item. It’s good to have it off the agenda,” Smithville city administrator Gerry Vernon said, adding that the cooperation among agencies made the project possible.

ONE LAST DETAIL

A dip in the road on the east edge of the new 180th Street bridge should soon go away.
The dip is where the road transitions from old pavement to new pavement.
Karl Walters, director of the Clay County highway department, said the county is working with Widel Inc. of Blackwater
— the construction company that handled the bridge replacement project
— to smooth out the dip. Walters doesn’t expect any additional costs for the repair.

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