The 4-lane Paseo bridge over the Missouri River was built in 1954 and soon carried the new Interstate 35 IN 1956.
It was a toll bridge until the early 1970's. The removal of tolls didn't help the congestion on the bridge and it's feeders south into downtown and north to I-29's beginning.
As many Missouri bridges- the Paseo suffered lack of preventive maintenance and had to be closed for repairs on an emergency basis in 2003.
In 2005- the bridge was again closed for re-surfacing the roadway and application of the bridge's more-appealing blue paint job. A new- eight-lane bridge (with no accommodation for rapid transit) is being built just east of the old Paseo bridge- the new to carry the name Bond bridge (although many will still call it the Paseo bridge- like the Grandview Triangle still is that) .
In these images (click for full size) -
you can see that the new bridge's deck is twice as wide as the old bridge.
.The new Paseo bridge and the I-35 corridor improvements- at a budgeted cost of $245-million- is slated to be completed by Halloween 2011.
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