The new $307 million Don Welge Memorial Bridge has opened to replace a key connection over the Mississippi River between Missouri and Illinois.
The bridge connecting Randolph County, Illinois, and Perry County, Missouri, via Highways 150 and 51 was overseen by Missouri DOT alongside a $143.2 million investment from Illinois DOT, which also contributed the bridge’s Illinois approach through the state’s $33.2 billion, six-year Rebuild Illinois program.
The Don Welge Memorial Bridge features a three-tower, cable-stayed design for a 100-year service life. The structure is composed of four spans and stretches 2,900 feet in length.
The design-build contract was awarded in March 2023 to the Ames Team consisting of Ames Construction Inc. and lead engineer Parsons Transportation Group.
This new structure replaces the 84-year-old Chester Bridge for a safer, more reliable river crossing for public, commercial and agricultural traffic. This new structure, which sees 7,000 drivers per day, has a wider crossing compared to the previous structure with two 12-foot lanes and 10-foot shoulders.
Construction crews worked in cofferdams as deep as 50 feet below water level and up to 280 feet above the Mississippi River. The new bridge consists of 28,000 cubic yards of concrete, 7.2 million pounds of rebar and 6.1 million pounds of structural steel.
