User:Dhubert2/Ronald Reagan Bridge

The new Ronald Reagan Bridge is a proposed steel cable stayed bridge spanning the Mississippi River and connecting downtown St. Louis, Missouri to East St Louis, Illinois. Currently, the design of the bridge is near completion, and construction is expected to be started by sometime in 2010. The construction of the bridge is part of a large renovation project of the interstate highway system in and around St. Louis. This renovation is expected to cost at least $640 million. When completed, the bridge will alleviate the traffic on other metro-area bridges, such as the Poplar Street Bridge and Martin Luther King Bridge. The Poplar Bridge currently carries I-70, I-55, and I-64 from Missouri to Illinois. With these being the three busiest interstates coming through St. Louis, the bridge is overcrowded and is subject to long traffic delays. The Reagan Bridge will carry I-70 across the River, taking it off of the busy Poplar Street Bridge.

Features
Once construction is completed, expected to be in 2015, the bridge will be one of a kind in North America. The main span of the bridge will be 1500 feet in length, with a total span length of 2803 feet, making it the longest cable stayed bridge in the western hemisphere, and the fifth longest in the world. In addition, its width of 222 feet make it the widest such bridge in the world. Cables will stretch from the bridge deck to the tops of two single-pylon towers, which will soar 435 feet above I-70, making it dominate the St. Louis skyline. According to the Illinois and Missouri Departments of Transportation, the new bridge’s main span will consist of 1,000 miles of 0.6-inch diameter stay-cable strand—enough for nearly two round trips from St. Louis to Chicago. Nearly 15000 tons of structural steel will be used, along with 90,600 cubic yards of concrete for the foundation, deck slab, and towers and 8600 tons of reinforcing steel.

Funding
The original design of the bridge and surrounding area put the project estimate at nearly $1.6 billion. Soon, both state governments decided that this price tag would not be able to be met by the state governments, and a new design, submitted in 2007, put the new estimate at $640 million. Of this $640 million, $264 million will go to relocating I-70 in Illinois, $70 million to relocating I-70 in Missouri, with the last $306 million going to the bridge construction itself. The Illinois state government is committed to spending $313 million, with Missouri contributing $88 million. The last $239 million is being received in a grant from the federal government.

The funding of the bridge project was the topic of lengthy debates between both the Illinois and Missouri governments. After receiving the federal grant, Illinois was ready to finance the project in order to get it started as soon as possible. Missouri was not as prepared, saying that it had more important highway projects to work on in the state. Missouri transportation officials then wanted to sell the bridge rights to a private company, saving the state millions of dollars. This would have manifested in the form of a toll bridge, but Illinois officials and several St. Louis congressman demanded a toll-free crossing. However, in a deal signed February 28, 2008 between Missouri governor Matt Blunt and Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, the two parties agreed that the bridge will not be tolled. This ended the attempt by Missouri officials to "privatize" the bridge, selling the rights to build, operate and maintain it up to 99 years, to an outside company.

Design
Also included in the project are renovations to I-55, I-64, and several interchanges in the area. I-70 will be reconnected to I-64. The new I-70 will also be reconnected to the old I-70 near Cass Avenue in St. Louis. The cable-stayed bridge will be four lanes wide, with room to expand it to six lanes in the future.

Subsurface exploration done by geotechnical engineering company Modjeski and Masters showed the existence of thick deposits of “low-density” sand below the water table. Limestone bedrock is 120 feet below the surface on the Illinois side and between 30 and 60 feet below the surface on the Missouri side. The loose sand, in combination with the project location's high seismic design requirements, results in the potential for liquefaction during an earthquake. To accommodate these conditions, the foundations were changed to feature 12-foot diameter, 120-foot-long drilled piers founded in rock to support the bridge superstructure. Several other approaches were considered, including in-situ densification of the sands.