Intercity Viaduct

Lewis and Clark Viaduct/Intercity Viaduct
Intercity Viaduct on the right, the original Lewis and Clark Viaduct on the left. Intercity Viaduct is left, the since rebulit Lewis and Clark Viaduct is right.
Coordinates	39.1133°N 94.6149°W / 39.1133; -94.6149
Carries	7 lanes of I-70 / US 24 / US 40 / US 169 3 westbound lanes, 4 eastbound lanes) bike/pedestrian path (eastbound)
Crosses	Kansas River
Locale	Kansas City, Kansas–Kansas City, Missouri
Official name	Lewis and Clark Viaduct
Maintained by	KDOT and MoDOT
Characteristics
Design	Deck truss bridge(eastbound and original westbound) Girder bridge (current westbound)
Width	52 ft (15.8 m)
Longest span	3,777 ft (1,151.1 m)
Clearance above	29 ft (8.8 m)
History
Opened	January 29, 1907 (1907-01-29) (now eastbound upper roadway) 1930 ( now eastbound lower roadway) November 12, 1962 (1962-11-12) (westbound) I-70 flyovers
Rebuilt	1962-1963 (1963) (eastbound; piers and deck) 2018-January 23, 2021 (2021-01-23) (westbound; Kansas approach extant) Future (eastbound)
Statistics
Daily traffic	23,500 (2008)
Toll	Historical, abolished in 1918
Location

The Lewis and Clark Viaduct (also known as the Intercity Viaduct, 6th Street Viaduct, and Woodwether Bridge) are a pair of automobile bridges that cross the Kansas River in the United States. Designed by Waddell and Hedrick, the first bridge, a four lane, deck truss bridge opened to the public on January 29, 1907, with the second bridge being opened on November 12, 1962. It rises above the West Bottoms, and several sets of railroad tracks. The eastbound bridge is notable for being the first roadway bridge to connect Kansas City, Missouri, with Kansas City, Kansas, non-stop all the way across. It is about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long and carries traffic flowing the concurrency of Interstate 70 (I-70)/U.S. Route 24 (US 24)/US 40/US 169.

History

1900s-1960s: early history

The Intercity Viaduct as seen in this 1908 photograph, streetcar tracks in view at right. Lewis and Clark Viaduct was not built until the early 1960s

The great flood of 1903 inundated all of the West Bottoms, leaving only one of the 17 bridges in place that spanned the Kaw River. The need for an elevated, reliable viaduct above the flood level crossing the Kaw River from the Kansas City, Mo., bluffs to the high ground on the Wyandotte County side was recognized. Following this, plans were considered for the building of an intercity viaduct. The data secured showed there was traffic enough to warrant the building of the viaduct by private enterprise and capital. The bridge design was finalized by the engineering firm Waddell and Hedrick in August 1903. Franchises were secured in September 1904 and successfully financed in early 1905. Groundbreaking ceremonies for construction of the west piers substructure over the Kansas River began on August 9, 1905, 2 years after it was first designed., On January 29, 1907, what was the unnamed viaduct opened with two lanes of tolled wagon traffic, one in each direction. It also had two divided streetcar tracks separated from the roadway, in addition to a pedestrian walkway. The viaduct was built in 17 months, and traveled from 6th and Bluff, K.C., Mo., to 4th and Minnesota Avenue in Kansas City, Kan., a distance of 8,400 feet. 4,031 feet were in Missouri; 3,742 feet in Kansas (approaches). It was 1 ¾ miles long. It proved unpopular due to its toll, causing travelers to start Shunpiking in order to avoid it. Only one year after opening, the Bridge succeeded in its goal of resisting floods.

Rather than pay the inconsistent toll, most drivers simply traveled on the James Street Bridge through the West Bottoms to 6th and bluff Streets. The viaduct was doomed by the bond holders' foreclosure and a bankrupted enterprise, and viaduct was promptly closed in 1911. The bondholders had proposed to sell the structure for scrap metal. In January 1917, the Kansas Legislature passed a bill giving the Kansas side authority to contract with K.C., Mo. By this enabling act, KCK could issue bonds for the purpose of purchasing the Intercity Viaduct for free traffic and so street car service would be available. The purchase price was $1,775,000. K.C., Mo., paid 56 per cent; KCK, 44 per cent. By enabling this act, KCK could issue bonds for the purpose of purchasing the Intercity Viaduct for free traffic and so street car service would be returned. Later that year, the viaduct was co-purchased by Kansas City, Kansas, and Kansas City, Missouri for $1,775,000. In a short ceremony on Oct. 30, 1918 at the State line on the viaduct, a ribbon cutting ceremony was led by Mayor Harry Mendenhall of KCK and Acting Mayor F.G. Robinson of K.C., Mo. formally opened the viaduct when Greater Kansas City took over the viaduct. At this time the viaduct was officially named the Intercity Viaduct, previously it had been nicknamed as such but not officially named.

In 1930, a project which built a two-laned lower roadway retrofitted onto the steel deck's truss beams was completed, this expanded the bridge's capacity from 1 lane in each direction to two lanes in each direction on each deck. It was constructed in order to reduce congestion and prevent long bottlenecks. In the mid-1930s, an improvement to the bridge's upper deck was started. It involved expanding the upper roadway from two lanes to four lanes, adding a speed limit of 30 mph to 40 mph, and replacing the old lighting with new sodium-vapor illumination casted cross arms 26 feet over the vehicle deck.Additionally, the walkway, Streetcar rails, street car hangars, and guardrails were forced to be removed, however the latter had been functionally replaced by busses anyways. Because of this, the bottom deck was converted into a single laned roadway that let traffic bypass the faster upper deck. Work on the project was fully completed by November 30, 1936.

The bridge survived the 1951 Great Kansas City flood, the only bridge to remain open to traffic during the flood.

1960s-present: twinning and later history

In the late 1950s, construction began on an Interstate corridor in the area, known as Interstate 70. This resulted in the need to build a second bridge, as the eastbound bridge lacked barriers and was inadequate to accommodate the increased traffic that it would likely carry. On November 12, 1962, a second Intercity Viaduct was completed. It laid to the north of the first viaduct, and had multiple differences, it was of a taller height, could accommodate contemporary vehicle width, had bolted truss connections, and only contained a single decked. Additionally, it had a small single laned truss that stuck out from the side near the Broadway Boulevard intersection, this served as an exit ramp onto the Fairfax Trafficway. Despite this, it only has three lanes, one less than the eastbound structure, though they are wider. The second span had cost $8 million to construct.

After the opening of the Lewis and Clark viaduct, eastbound traffic was closed temporarily, and the original span was rebuilt, with all of its old steel piers being tubed off and replaced with modern concrete piers, and the lighting was removed and steel deck replaced with concrete coating, along with construction of on-ramps to serve as exits of I-70. It was reopened in 1963, at which point it was restriped to carry four lanes of eastbound traffic only, and the bottom deck would be closed.

On January 25, 1969, the Intercity Viaduct was officially named as the Lewis and Clark Viaduct after the westbound span, in honor of Lewis and Clark Expedition.

In 1972, the eastbound bridge was rehabilitated.

In 1984, the westbound bridge was rehabilitated after 21 years of service.

Both spans survived the Great Kansas City flood of 1993.

In 1999, construction work on a reconstruction of the eastbound span's lower level was started. It involved repairing and rebuilding the deck and converting the on-ramps for pedestrian use. The project was completed in 2000.

On January 29, 2007, the eastbound bridge celebrated its 100th sentimental, and several people gathered from West Bottoms on the same day it opened, holding lights to the bridge in honor of its 100 years of service.

By the late 2000s, both viaducts had deteriorated significantly, while maintenance did not hamper their structural integrity, they required nearly $1,000,000 a year to keep safe for use. They were also considered functionally obsolete due to lacking emergency shoulders among many other things, resulting in the snarling of traffic when an accident or other obstruction occurred. On Feb 4, 2018, phase 1 of the project was started, and the the westbound span was closed in order to demolish and rebuild a 0.58 mile segment of the viaduct, from the 3rd Street intersection to the end of crossing the railroad tracks. In addition, modifications were made to the nearby roadway from there to Broadway Boulevard. After already removing concrete piers from it, the Kansas River truss was demolished with explosives at about 8:30 on Saturday, June 2, 2018. Work started on constructing the new segment of the bridge in November 2018, it was delayed due to the 2019 Midwestern U.S. floods. The bridge was reopened on January 23, 2021. The project ultimately cost $65,00,000, of which $58,400,000 was Federally funded and $6,500,000 million was state piad. The reconstruction required approximately 8,800,000 pounds of structural steel, 5,400 lineal feet of concrete girders, 21,000 cubic yards of concrete and 3,10 million pounds of reinforcing steel. Multiple other upgrades were also made, such as adding lighting to the Kansa River segment, widening the piers to add an adequate shoulder, and repairing other parts of the viaduct.

Only 1 week after reopening, one of the westbound spans extant approaches were damaged by a truck that crashed into a guardrail at a sharp angle, along with other cars that fell off.

The Eastbound span was closed for emergency deck repairs in October 2021.

Future

Two future construction projects are currently planned for the crossing.

The 2nd phase will rebuild the mid-section of the eastbound span. Like the original westbound span, it is considered functionally obsolete, with the majority of the structure from the Kansas steel truss onward lacking shoulders, on top of having fairly narrow lanes on all of the unmodified 1907 roadway. This will result in the closure of eastbound traffic in a similar manner to the westbound span when it was rebuilt. It would also build a dedicated span to act as a walkway that will lie underneath the rebuilt bridge's pier.

The 3rd phase will build new flyover ramps, which will bypass the 3rd street intersection. It will carry four lanes of I-70 over the Kansa River. After completion, the old left turn ramp and right turn on-ramp located in the area will be demolished, and the viaduct connecting to them would be rebuilt, the already reconstructed section would be as an exit connector to the old intersection, which would generally remain the same. The current left hand ramp is considered dangerous, as a high amount of unfamiliar drivers cause accidents due to its confusing configuration, leftward turn, and lack of shoulders in all areas past the gore. This is not an issue that the eastbound on-ramp does not have, due to its lower grade, waning beacons, turning right instead of left, and signage, it however, is only one lane wide, meaning it does not meet current interstate standards. This westbound viaduct bypass was considered during its reconstruction, however, it was not done due to funding constraints.

See also

• Transport portal
• Engineering portal
• Kansas portal
• United States portal