This $245-million project called for reconfiguration of existing lanes, construction of additional driving lanes, reconstruction and reconfiguration of five interchanges, construction or reconstruction of 12 bridges and construction of the cable-stayed Christopher S. Bond Bridge across the Missouri River. All this was done to increase capacity for the 102,000 vehicles that travel the corridor each day.
The economic downturn during the early stages of the project prompted the Missouri Dept. of Transportation and project team members to rethink the design of various structures. Bridge superstructures designed to include structural steel were redesigned to include concrete girders, in much the same way that steel pilings were replaced with concrete ones.