The West Madison Bridge in Ark City opened Thursday. (Photos by Brady Bauman)
The West Madison bridge over the Arkansas River on U.S. 166 in Ark City opened Thursday.
It replaces a bridge built in 1937 that was 20 feet narrower than the new bridge, which is 44 feet wide including shoulders, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation. The new bridge is rated for heavier commercial traffic.
The old bridge was closed and demolished a year ago.
The new structure was built with more than 2 million tons of steel and more than 3,000 cubic yards of concrete.
During the project, crews had to work around repeated flooding on and near the river, starting in December 2018 and then again in May of 2019.
“Through it all, work never stopped,” said Engineering Technician Specialist Robin Gregory, who oversaw the project for KDOT at the site.
The new bridge is a steel-beam-supported structure, with nine piers across the river set into bedrock.
The bridge cost $6.3 million. The main contractor was A.M. Cohron & Son Inc., based in Atlantic, Iowa, with an office in Emporia.
A photo from May of the new bridge while it was under construction.
