The Kansas Turnpike Bridges are a pair of multi-beam girder bridge that carry the

Kansas Turnpike The Kansas Turnpike is a , freeway-standard toll road that lies entirely within the US state of Kansas. It runs in a general southwest–northeast direction from the Oklahoma border to Kansas City. It passes through several major Kansas cities ...

and

Interstate 70 Interstate 70 (I-70) is a major east–west Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the United States that runs from Interstate 15, I-15 near Cove Fort, Utah, to a park and ride lot just east of Interstate 695 (Maryland), I-695 in ...

over the

Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwesternmost part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwesternmost portion of the extensive Mississippi River dr ...

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

. The first bridges were a pair of deck trusses, each carrying two lanes of traffic. The bridges were the site of the

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

of the Turnpike on December 31, 1954. The bridges, along with the rest of the Turnpike, was opened for a day of free travel on October 20, 1956, between 6 a.m. and 2pm., then opened for regular traffic on October 25 at 10 a.m. By 2007, the bridges were considered to be at the end of their design life, and a project to replace the bridges was begun. The first of the two new bridge was opened to traffic in October 2009, carrying 2 lanes in each direction., with the demolition of the old bridge occurring with several blasts, the first of which occurred on November 15, 2009 and the last on January 13, 2010. The second bridge was completed in late 2010, with traffic moved onto the new bridge on November 29.

References

Bridges over the Kansas River Road bridges in Kansas Interstate 70 Bridges on the Interstate Highway System Girder bridges in the United States Truss bridges in the United States {{Kansas-bridge-struct-stub