Fred McAllister figures he must have been two years old when the bridge was being built in Windsor, as he was still in a high chair. But he has memories of it being built.
“I remember Mom setting me out on the front porch,” he said. “We watched them digging the dirt, and I remember them setting the guard rails.”
Fred, who is now retired and living in Clinton, is in good shape, but the concrete supports of the bridge, built in 1945 to span railroad tracks, are not. Demolition on the 306-foot-long span, which serves as the entryway to Windsor, is scheduled to start this week.
On Sept. 6, the Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) closed State Hwy. 52E between Calhoun and Windsor to through traffic, and directed drivers to a detour onto County Route J and Hwy. 2.
The detour adds about 6 minutes to the car trip between Calhoun and Windsor, the time it takes to drive north from Calhoun on Route J to connect with Hwy. 2. Hikers and cyclists using the Katy Trail will also have to detour around the construction zone. The Katy Trail now runs on the bed under the bridge that used to span the Missouri, Kansas & Texas railroad tracks. When the project is complete, the trail will go through a 12 by 12-foot box concrete culvert.
The first step was installing erosion control measures. Workers will do some dismantling, then will come in and saw the bridge into sections, according to Gidget Koestner, resident engineer at the Clinton MODOT office.
Plans originally called for the box culvert to be pre-made, but because of delays in shipping schedules, they are going with one cast in place, Koestner said.
Then fill dirt will be put over the top, and the roadway connected back through, she said. It will be lower than the current one.
“Since there is no longer a need to span a functioning railway, the new roadway can be lowered approximately 18 feet,” Koestner said.
Fred and his family lived below the approach to the bridge on the Windsor side on South Main, in a two-story house now painted dark blue-gray. Fred’s mother, Cleo, worked at the International Shoe Factory, he said, and his father, Fred Sr., at the Bank of Windsor.
Fred attended school in Windsor through junior high, when the family moved to Knob Noster, where he met Carolyn, his future bride. Their first date was the senior prom in 1961, the year he graduated. They married five years later. Fred and Carolyn moved to Clinton after he retired from a career making ammunition at Remington Arms, then in paint sales with its parent company, Dupont.
The bridge was built with a project awarded in 1941, Koestner said. The replacement project is estimated to cost $1.4 million. It is expected to be completed by the first week in April.
Until then, drivers will have to enjoy the drive through the farm country north of Calhoun. And once the project is complete, they won’t have to face the detour again, Koestner said.
“The culvert may need some repairs,” she said, “but it’s easy to get in and make them.”
