BOONE COUNTY, MO. -- Commuters between Jefferson City and Columbia will experience some delays for the next few weeks.
Missouri Department of Transportation is replacing the Highway 63 southbound Turkey Creek Bridge near the Deer Park Exit.
The northbound bridge will carry traffic in both directions during the construction.
Right now, traffic is down to one lane for about a mile in both directions.
The bridge replacement is part of MoDOT’s Safe and Sound Bridge Improvement Program, which will improve 800 of Missouri’s worst bridges by the end of 2013.
In Mid-Missouri, 90 bridges will be replaced or repaired as part of this program.
MoDOT officials said it’s hard to predict how the construction will affect traffic flow.
“It will take some time for people to get used to the road is going to be configured now," MoDOT Spokesperson Susan Ball said. "The northbound lane will have head to head traffic. Both the north and southbound lanes will be running head to head which means only one lane instead of two. It’s going to be a delay there.”
Construction of the new southbound Turkey Creek Bridge should be finished by Halloween.
The original bridge was built in 1925.
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