CRAWFORD COUNTY — Great River Engineering representative Krista Swartz discussed with the Crawford County Commissioners at the weekly commission meeting on the 2026 design and construction plans for replacing the Smith Road bridge over Three Mile Creek. Preliminary planning stages are already on their way to completion.

“The big hold up there, what we were waiting on was the cultural resource survey and then getting environmental cleared,” Swartz said. “MoDOT has approved that survey, and so it’s been sent off to SHIPO (State Historic Preservation Office) about two weeks ago.”

After it’s approved, they can move into acquisition. Some of the affected property owners have already been contacted to help introduce them to the project, get feedback, and ask about cooperating with Great River Engineering. The other property owners will be contacted soon.

“We can’t officially get anything signed or work out compensation until we get approval from MoDOT,” Swartz said.

They are hoping for approval confirmation by the end of the year or the first week of January at the latest. Afterward, they will sign and submit all documents to MoDOT by the end of January so they can start their review period.

“Then we can open bids, hopefully at the beginning of March,” Swartz said. “...Give it a couple of months just for all the paperwork, and then 90 days for construction. We’re looking at the end of summer completion for that one.”

Plans for construction on the John Coleman Road bridge aren’t as far along. The holdup with this bridge is the lack of communication from the railroad.

“So we started coordinating with them in early June, July timeframe, and they don’t give us much information,” Swartz said. “It’s ‘we’re working on our approvals,’ and that’s about as much as we hear.”

A new person with the railroad is touching base with all the parties, and there are two groups they are still waiting on.

Final plans and designs should be completed around the middle of January, which should quickly turn into getting the project out to bid.

“So I’d say it’s probably in the same timeline as Smith Road, where we’re looking at the end of summer having construction complete,” Swartz said.

Swartz gave updates on bridges that have already started construction.

“Bass Resort bridge and then also High Point bridge, they’re both in similar spots,” Swartz said. “I believe this week they’re looking to place beams, so they’re moving along really quickly.”

Depending on how long the contractor takes off for the holidays, they estimate to be finished by the end of January.

Swartz mentioned some programs to help with funding these construction projects.

Federal Lands Access Program (FLAP) application was submitted back in October, and awards should be announced around the middle of March. If the White River Road low water crossing receives the award, it would be 100 percent funded.

MoDOT fully funds the Bridge Engineering Assistance Program (BEAP). 

“Basically, if you have a structure that’s a low water crossing or a bridge that you’re looking to replace, we can do a hydraulic analysis to size it, and then do a cost estimate based on that,” Swartz said.

The Four Mile Road bridge over Brush Creek is eligible for soft match, which makes the county pay for the design and construction of the bridge, but then it can be reimbursed for 80 percent of that cost to be used on future projects with MoDOT.

Associate Commissioner of District One Mark Pfeiffer had his own bridge construction update.

“Sellars Road bridge construction was supposed to start today, so that road is officially closed at the bridge,” Pfeiffer said. “(It will be closed) till the first part of March.”

Associate Commissioner of District Two Jared Boast said he and Pfeiffer went to the Technical Committee Meeting at the Meramec Regional Planning Commission.

“...Last Thursday, Mark and I attended the TAC committee meeting at MRPC, at the end of the year, where you vote on all the projects that came out. When you have an opportunity as commissioners or appointees to vote on all of the counties in the consortium on their projects,” Boast said. “Out of roughly 36ish projects, we ended up that our Cherry Valley bridge, getting that replaced, was very high up on that list.”

Other projects, such as Lindbergh and the intersection of Glassy Road and Heyer Road, did not move up very far on the overall ranking of the entire committee.