The Saving of the KATY Bridge in Booville

Governor Nixon was in Boonville today to announce that the state of Missouri and the Union Pacific Railroad have come to an agreement and the bridge will remain in Boonville. Because of President Obama's stimulus package, money that Missouri received will be used to build a new bridge over the Osage River. Please help support the ongoing effort in Boonville to reopen this landmark bridge by pledging money to the Save the Katy Bridge Organization

That's a winner all around, now a different kind of support kicks in, it's a good day!

This is a sweet and long-awaited victory. Now just imagine being able to bike or walk across this amazing bridge. The organization that Parris mentioned, the Save the Katy Bridge Coalition, hopes to make that happen.

Awesome news. Can't wait to hike across!!!

Great news! Does anyone know of the timing or details regarding converting this into a pedestrian bridge? Ramps on both sides of the elevated portion and additional fencing no doubt.

Specifically, if and when this is opened, I hope it is announced in advance. It would nice to get a bunch of the regulars from this forum (and everyone else) together for a marginally lawful grand opening party.

Being out of state, I am confused. Can someone explain the basic significance of this bridge discussion? Is the Katy bridge currently inactive? How do you cross the river now? Can bikers cross on bike lanes now or with the traffic? Will this bridge be saved just so people can ride their bikes across but no vehicles?

thanks for any clarification on this,

PM, to answer your questions albeit not in order: The bridge is not in use for the Katy trail. As one can see in Ray's pic above, the center section is locked in the up position for barges etc. to pass, hence my questions in the post above. The trail is diverted past the casino and over to a dedicated cement wall protected bike lane on the Highway 40/Main St bridge, than back to the trail on the north side.

Since motorized vehicles are prohibited on the trail, any modifications to it for trail use would be for pedestrian and bike use only one assumes.

As far as the significance of the bridge, besides its historical value, it has been the subject of an ongoing legal battle for several years. Others can probably explain this better than me and it's likely you and everybody else in this forum has followed this so forgive me but in a nutshell:

The Union Pacific planned to dismantle the bridge for its valuable steel such that they could use that to (finally) double track their main line over the Osage River mentioned above. This is a crucial bottleneck for this line. Had the stimulus money not come through and the Booneville bridge dismantled, the status of the Katy trail as "railbanked" (meaning, held in reserve for possible future reactivation as a railroad) would have likely been nulled due to this physical interruption in the right-of-way.

Based on documents from the 19th century, landowners that own the land on which the MKT built the railroad claim that the agreement was for the land to be returned to them if the railbank was broken. To summarize, if the bridge was taken down, it's possible the entire Katy Trial could have been lost. Understandably, there are strong feelings on both sides.

Others may chime in if my facts are bent somewhat but that's how I recall things.

Thanks for the explanation, MLH -- this topic had always confused me. :-S Now it makes more sense.