After 90 years of service, the Champ Clark Bridge, which carried U.S. Highway 54 over the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois, was functionally obsolete. The Missouri and Illinois Departments of Transportation awarded HNTB and Massman Construction a design-build contract to replace the bridge. The design-build team also was responsible for quality assurance, quality control and fulfilling environmental assessment commitments.

Meeting all federal and state agency requirements, the design includes two 12-foot-wide lanes, 10-foot-wide shoulders, precast deck panels that required no post-tensioning, a polyester polymer concrete overlay and a raised Illinois approach to prevent flooding. HNTB also designed a main span and secondary span of equal lengths to serve as primary and backup navigational channels.

Learn more about the project in the Designer story here.

Location: Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois

Client: Missouri Department of Transportation; Illinois Department of Transportation

Read more: Replacing the Champ, Designer article