Missouri's "Safe & Sound" Project
I somehow missed it until now, but the MoDOT website and PowerPoint presentation for this initiative have been using copyrighted photos from bridgehunter.com without permission or attribution. How nice.
There is some good news with this "Safe & Sound" Project. Many of the 802 bridges slated for replacement are, in fact, Ugly Concrete Eyesore Bridges (UCEBs), typically built during the 1960s and 1970s. It's troubling that so many "modern" bridges could be allowed to deteriorate to the point where they are now structurally deficient.
I'm surprised to see that many historic truss and arch bridges from the 1920s are not on the list. However, the oldest bridge on the Missouri state highway system, Gootch's Mill Bridge (1905), is unfortunately slated for replacement. The loss of this bridge will likely mean that the stone piers underneath it, probably from an earlier covered bridge, will be lost as well.