An arch culvert installed at the junction of Highways 6 and 69 near Altamont last week is the first of its kind in the northwest district, according to Missouri Highway and Transportation Department officials.
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History was in the making when the Missouri Department of Highway Transportation put in this arch culvert at the junction of Hwy. 6 & 69 last week. It was the first time a culvert like this one had been constructed in the Northwest District. Work on the 99 by 9 foot culvert was completed Tuesday, Sept. 21.
Gabion walls were used for the first time in Daviess County. A gabion is a cylinder made of wire filled with stones used for fortification at the head walls. The walls measure 6 foot long, 36 inches wide, and 36 inches tall.
It cost $160,000 to do the work. That amount was at a considerable savings to the state of Missouri, according to Carl Carder, lead inspector on the job.
“The only other way to build a bypass would have meant closing Highway 69 while we dug that one out. It would have cost that much just to do the bypass . And it would have been a travelers’ nightmare. A lot of thinking went into building the culvert. Culverts like this are used as decorations in the city, but it proved to be cost effective up here.”
The original culvert was built in the late 1800s, around 1870, when a railroad track passed over it. Before the State began the work, the project’s design engineer, Brady McKinley out of St. Joseph, documented the culvert for the Missouri Historical Society. In this way the culvert will be “preserved on paper” even though it’s removal could not be avoided.
Hardeys Incorporated was the contractor. Concrete Placement, Kansas City, Kan., subcontracted to pump the grout into the pipe to hold it in place. The pipe and the arch structure are aluminum supplied by subcontractor Contech, Overland Park, Kan.
“The culvert worked out real well,” said Mr. Carder. “We may do more.”
Minor problems with the culvert will be taken care of at a later date and the barricades along the highway will be removed.