Poplar Street Bridge
Facts
- Overview
- Haunched Deck plate girder over the Mississippi River on I-55 / I-64 / U. S. Highway 40 in downtown St. Louis
- Location
- St. Louis, Missouri, and St. Clair County, Illinois
- Status
- Open to traffic
- History
- Built 1967; reconstructed 1993
- Builder
- - Bethlehem Steel Co. of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
- Design
- Haunched Deck plate girder
- Dimensions
-
Length of largest span: 600.0 ft.
Total length: 2,164.4 ft. (0.4 mi.)
Deck width: 104.0 ft.
- Recognition
- Eligible for the National Register of Historic Places
- Also called
- Bernard F. Dickman Bridge (official name)
- Approximate latitude, longitude
- +38.61789, -90.18266 (decimal degrees)
38°37'04" N, 90°10'58" W (degrees°minutes'seconds") - Approximate UTM coordinates
- 15/745287/4278140 (zone/easting/northing)
- Quadrangle map:
- Cahokia
- Land survey
- T. 45 N., R. 7 E., Sec. 23
- Inventory numbers
- MONBI 1244 (Missouri bridge number on the National Bridge Inventory)
BH 22658 (Bridgehunter.com ID) - Inspection (as of 02/2016)
- Deck condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Superstructure condition rating: Poor (4 out of 9)
Substructure condition rating: Fair (5 out of 9)
Appraisal: Structurally deficient
Sufficiency rating: 56.7 (out of 100) - Average daily traffic (as of 2015)
- 55,146
Update Log
- February 11, 2017: New photos from Daniel Barnes
- February 8, 2014: Updated by Mark Dellbringge: Status change: Edited picture, description and categories to remove I-70.
- February 28, 2012: New photo from Gene Smania
- February 17, 2011: Updated by Mark Dellbringge: Incorporated data from 2010 NBI
- February 16, 2011: Updated by Mark Dellbringge: Updated future prospects
- February 15, 2011: New photo from Mark Dellbringge
- September 26, 2010: New photos from Mark Dellbringge
- September 18, 2010: Updated by Mark Dellbringge: Main span, added steel fabricator
- January 31, 2010: New photo from James Baughn
- September 8, 2009: New photos from James Baughn
- July 10, 2005: Posted photo from Brian Frierdich
Sources
- Brian Frierdich - railtrekker [at] yahoo [dot] com
- Bill Burmaster
- Wikipedia
- James Baughn - webmaster [at] bridgehunter [dot] com
- Mark Dellbringge
- Daniel Barnes
Comments
This morning, MO DOT will be inspecting the bridge.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/commutingt...
New signs may be needed..."Caution: falling concrete"
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/commutingt...
The speed limit on the Poplar Street Bridge is 50MPH, however, as seems to be normal these days, hardly anyone obeys that. There are no provisions for emergency stopping at all on the span. It is partolled frequently by Auto Assistance Vehicles from both ends but even that is often not enough. An accident or even just a stopped vehicle often causes multiple rear-end collisions.
This bridge carries several Interstate highways as well as an overburdon of local traffic, especially durring rush hour periods. A new Interstate bridge is in the works now but will not be opened for quite a while. I think budgets are in place, land is being acquired for right-of-ways and soon construction will begin on approaches.
This was a problem with a lot of the bridges (particularly Interstate Bridges) built during the 1960's. No provisions for a shoulder (at least on the outside lanes)was made, even though the high-speed traffic would have recommended one for safety's sake. The same problem exists on the new Chain of Rocks bridge and that is an even longer (1 mile) bridge. Whenever I cross it, driving an older car, I hope that I have no problems before getting across it. I don't know why the builders and designers didn't incorporate that into the designs being that the interstate highway system was supposed to be designed for safety. They do it for all bridges that have been built since the 70's and beyond, and these bridges were a lot more expensive to build.
The traffic volume on this bridge will be reduced in about 2015, if and when the planned new bridge over the Mississippi River opens.
YES! AVOID THIS BRIDGE IT'S NOT JUST THE ROAD REPAIRS...IT'S JUST A OLD DANGEROUS BRIDGE! IN APRIL OF 1997 MY SON, SHAWN RUSH WAS KILLED ON THAT BRIDGE! HIS CAR STALLED...AND THERE ISN'T ANY KIND OF SHOULDER OR AREA TO PULL YOUR CAR OVER! A SPEEDING CAB DRIVER SMASHED INTO THE BACK OF HIS CAR AND TIPPED HIM OVER ON HIS SIDE. THEN THE CAB DRIVER TOOK OFF! HE TOOK AWAY A GREAT SON, BROTHER,COUSIN,NEPHEW AND FRIEND!
IF THE NURSE THAT STOPPED TO HELP SHAWN HERE'S ABOUT THIS WEB SITE...PLEASE CONTACT ME, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP!
SHAWN'S MOM
If you're not a St. Louisan and don't know.......AVOID this bridge like the plague for the next several months. They're repaving so there's one lane closed in each direction. Traffic backs up for several miles at the worst times. If you have to get downtown, use the MLK or the Eads. If you're going through the city to the south, use the I-255 bypass and the Jefferson Barracks Bridge (Exit 10 on the Illinois side). If you're going through on the north, use I-270 (Exit 20 on the Illinois side) and the Chain of Rocks Bridge. The PSB is BAD NEWS right about now.
This page's URL is http://bridgehunter.com/mo/st-louis-city/poplar-street/
Anybody remember 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation? Chevy Chase drove his ugly station wagon over this bridge before getting lost in a nearby ghetto. Time flies.