Paseo Bridge

Shortly here MODOT will be closing the Paseo Bridge on I29/I35 for about nine months to overhaul it, which will certainly make the commute from the Northland into downtown and parts south a little trickier. Luckily there are other alternatives such as Choteau Trafficway, I435, and the Heart of America bridge, and we know they should work from when the Paseo Bridge was closed for emergency repairs a couple of winters ago.

Long term, a solution is still needed to supplement or replace the Paseo bridge. I know a lot of people are probably thinking "Why worry about it now since they are fixing it to last at least another 1o to 15 years?" The answer to that is the fact that building a new bridge, including the design, funding and contstruction, could easily take 10 years or more. That means its time to figure it out now. Face facts, the current brige cannot support the volume of traffic it carries and if I29/35 is widened into the downtown area, it won't help if the bridge is not also wider. I would think we would want an eight lane Missouri River crossing, with perhaps another lane to enter/exit from Armour Road and front street on each side. The cheaper solution in the short run is to build a new bridge next to the Paseo Bridge for say, southbound traffic and convert the Paseo to Northbound traffic. Then another 10 or so years down the road you build a new bridge to replace the Paseo bridge.

What do you think? The biggest problem is going to be funding, hopefully the feds will help fund a very large chunk of it.

One thing is for sure, we need to figure it out and start planning for a solution now.