Fairfax Bridge (Missouri River)

Fairfax Bridge and
Fairfax Bridge and
Coordinates	39°09′24″N 94°37′25″W / 39.1566°N 94.6236°W
Carries	Four lanes of US 69
Crosses	Missouri River
Locale	Platte County, Missouri to Kansas City, Kansas
Maintained by	MoDOT
Characteristics
Design	Twin Truss bridges
Total length	2,486.5 feet (757.9 m)
History
Opened	September 27, 1934, 1957
Closed	October 31, 2014, Late 2016
Location

The Fairfax Bridge and Platte Purchase Bridge were a pair of twin truss bridges over the Missouri River that handled traffic on U.S. Route 69 (US 69), connecting Interstate 635 (I-635) in Riverside, Missouri with the Seventh Street Trafficway in Fairfax, Kansas. The southbound span was built by the Kansas City Bridge Company, and was 2,486.5 feet (757.9 m) long and had 13 spans on 15 piers. The northbound spans biggest span was 465.96 feet and it is 2552.19 feet long and had a deck width of 28.31 feet and vertical clearance of 15.02 feet.

History

Ground was broken April 21, 1931, with the bridge opening on September 27, 1934, at a cost of $600,000.

A second bridge was opened in 1957 to alleviate traffic concerns on the older Fairfax Bridge. The Platte Purchase Bridge carried northbound traffic, while the older span carries southbound traffic. This bridge was named for the Platte Purchase.

At this point, the Farfax Bridge was restriped to carry two southbound lanes.

In 2013 plans were announced for replacement of both the Fairfax Bridge and the Platte Purchase Bridge. The Fairfax Bridge was scheduled for demolition first in early 2015, with the bridge closed to all traffic on October 31, 2014, and traffic routed to the Platte Purchase Bridge.^[1] The Platte Purchase Bridge was then restricted to handling two-way traffic.^[2]

The Platte Purchase bridge was set for demolition in late 2016 when the new bridge opened.^[3] The first detonation occurred on the morning of Friday, December 9, 2016, and the rest of the bridge was demolished on Thursday, January 12, 2017.

The replacement bridge was formally opened by the Missouri Department of Transportation on March 16, 2017.^[4]