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Motorists have dealt with concrete barriers bringing Interstate 29 down to one lane in each direction on the Bee Creek bridge for months now.

CAMDEN POINT, Mo. — For the drivers who have been gripping their steering wheels over Bee Creek bridge work on Interstate 29 since March: There’s light at the end of that narrow tunnel.

Relief could come as early as this week, but all construction should be completed by the end of the month, a local Missouri Department of Transportation official said Monday.

“It’s taking so long. It’s just been so long,” lamented Kenny Gilbert, who manages Trex Mart convenience stores along I-29 in Dearborn, Mo., and Camden Point.

The state awarded a roughly six-month contract to APAC Missouri to construct new bridge decks for about $1.647 million.

Salt had damaged the nearly 40-year-old bridges so heavily that MoDOT closed the northbound and southbound bridges down to 10-foot lanes for improvements, explained Don Wichern, MoDOT’s Northwest District engineer.

In the meantime, wide loads have been detoured at the Dearborn and Camden Point exits to follow Missouri Highway 371. Black skid marks along the concrete barriers welcomed skinnier vehicles that braved the bumpy, shoulder-like bridge lanes.

The construction has caused bottleneck traffic pileups during daily rush hours. The headaches peak Friday afternoons when the Kansas City-bound crowd attempts to move south at the end of the work week.

That’s bittersweet news for Mr. Gilbert, who admitted the Dearborn gas station is seeing more customers during the construction.

“The people going south usually get off there because of the long lines,” he said. “It seems like more people are coming south than going north.”

But Mr. Gilbert, who lives in Independence, noted the Noland Road bridge on Interstate 70 only took about two months to complete this spring.

Mr. Wichern said because of the high traffic and nearby businesses on the Kansas City-area bridge, MoDOT opted to close it completely for speedier repairs. But for the Bee Creek bridges, no detour existed to handle the amount of traffic the bridges carried.

On Friday morning, workers widened the lanes to 14 feet.

“That’s a good sign,” Mr. Wichern said.

The decks are finished, but APAC has to paint beams underneath the bridges.

MoDOT officials expect the northbound bridge to open by Wednesday or Thursday. The contract calls for the southbound bridge to open by Aug. 28, weather permitting.

Also this summer, MoDOT completed improvements to Platte River bridges further south on I-29. Construction on the Platte River overflow bridges should be done later this month, as well.

All six bridges cost $3.1 million, Mr. Wichern said.

Alyson E. Raletz can be reached at

alysonraletz@npgco.com.