Contractor makes a million-dollar mistake on I-55 project: who’s paying the bill?

ST. LOUIS – It’s a construction project soaring into the tens of millions of dollars here in the St. Louis metro area, but construction crews hit a bump.

The Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT) is spending $63 million to rehabilitate 26 bridges along I-55, connecting the City of St. Louis to South St. Louis County.

Work began in spring 2022, but last fall, MoDOT said one of its contractors made a mistake on a northbound bridge over the Union Pacific Railroad.

“When the contractor removed the concrete driving surface and put a new one on, that demolition process they used damaged the bridge girders,” MoDOT St. Louis District Engineer Tom Blair said.

Without girders, there’s no bridge. It supports the driving concrete surface of the bridge.

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“The replacement girders are expected to be delivered in the fall of this year,” Blair said.

Blair said the contractor assigned to the job will pick up the bill to fix the mistake, no taxpayer funds will be used.

The contractor is KCI Construction, based out of St. Louis.

In an email, KCI President Tom Huster confirmed a subcontractor is responsible for the mistake, which will cost millions of dollars to fix.

“Currently, we are working to resolve all repair costs between KCI, subcontractor, and respective insurance carriers,” Huster wrote.

The damaged northbound bridge remains untouched until the replacement parts can come in. Construction crews are working in the meantime, though, on the southbound bridges.

“This bridge, at this point, is behind schedule,” Blair said. “If our contractor is aggressive enough, they might be able to get these girders in and get this bridge open at the same time they complete all the southbound bridges.”

Jacob Graves drives I-55 and said he’s thankful construction is happening.

“I’m just glad that they’re improving the highway, it was time for it,” Graves said. “You just have to follow the signs and watch where you’re going.”

Graves said errors can happen in any job.

“Mistakes happen, you have to do what you got to, I understand,” he said.

Others are not so forgiving, though.

“It’s very frustrating; it’s dangerous, too. You have all these sidewalls; you’re all boxed in. There’s a lot of people not paying attention,” driver Donald Miller said.

There’s quite an approval process the contractor had to go through to get permission from Union Pacific Railroad to replace the damaged girders. The rail company has given the okay.

According to MoDOT’s website, all the work in the northbound and southbound lanes, should be wrapped up by mid-2026.

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