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The Crysler Avenue bridge over train tracks between Lexington Avenue and Elm Street in Independence has been closed for more than a year.
It’s a blessing and a curse for Mark Pace — whose high-end bicycle sales and repair shop, Pace Bicycle Haven, sits at the northeast corner of the bridge.
“We hope it'll be closed for years and years, but most of my customers would rather not,” Pace, who lives above the bicycle shop with his wife and their dogs, said Tuesday morning.
Passing motorists were not shy about expressing their frustration as I interviewed Pace and city officials, stopping to ask when it would reopen or shouting some version of “fix the bridge.”
“Every time buses or trucks roll across here, it shakes our entire building more than a train does,” Pace said, gesturing toward the bridge. “... The train noise never bothers me, but the traffic noise does, and this cuts down on it by a factor of maybe 30% or 40%.”
Northbound motorists are forced to detour several blocks east before Lexington to get across the train tracks, while southbound traffic has to detour west through a neighborhood to reach East 23rd Street, but thanks to Independence voters, that won’t be the case much longer.
The Independence City Council voted Oct. 6 to approve an agreement with Grain Valley-based Louis-Company LLC for a nearly $3.6-million contract to replace the deck on two bridges, including the Kentucky Road bridge over Mill Creek, along with the Crysler bridge.
“We have the design completed and we awarded the contract, so we will give notice to proceed early November,” said Independence City Councilman John Perkins.
Six months ago, Independence voters approved a $55-million bond issue for infrastructure needs, while rejecting two others. The bridge repairs are the first projects funded from that tax increase.
The bond issue provides $15 million for bridge repair projects, adds $30 million to the city’s street resurfacing program, and earmarks $10 million for sidewalk additions and repairs around seven Independence elementary schools.
“We have 14 different bridges out, but these [two] were very similar in the aspect of design,” Perkins said.
He said the city had solicited bids for the Crysler bridge project on multiple occasions, but it was too small in scope to attract business, so city crews made minor repairs to extend the span’s life.
“We have bought all the time that we could with it,” Perkins said.
Pace agreed: “They have come and made many, many patches and repairs — some interrupting traffic for a day and some for a week — and none of them seem to have had the desired effect.”
The bond issue allowed Independence to bundle the Crysler bridge’s repair with another project, which proved more appealing.
Independence will seek design work on three more bridges — the Kentucky Road bridge over Rock Creek, the Arlington Avenue bridge over Rock Creek and the RD Mize Road bridge over the Little Blue River/Trace Trail — in the next tranche.
The bridge outages across Independence are more than an inconvenience.
“This bridge in particular is on a major thoroughfare, so this does impact our response time,” said Independence Fire Chief Jimmy Walker.
Its repair, which will begin later this year and should be completed by late summer or early fall next year, could literally be a life-saver.
“85% of what we do is emergency medical services,” Walker said. “... We're going to be able to provide life-saving care that much quicker and, in the event of an emergency, every second counts.”
The Kentucky Road bridge over Mill Creek, which has been closed for five years, should reopen next spring.
Independence also has its first round of street overlay projects out for bid, while work on the sidewalk repairs is expected to begin next year.
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