Officials with the Missouri Department of Transportation say work on the Poplar Street Bridge will start this spring and continue into the fall.
The work will involve resurfacing the bridge deck and will result in lane closures and traffic delays.
Deanna Venker is an area engineer for MoDOT. She says the work could not be delayed until the completion of the new Mississippi River bridge in 2014.
"We do need to do the work at this time,” Venker said. “It's got several holes that have been re-patched and patched again and we've had concrete falling off underneath the bridge, causing a lot of property damage down below and it’s at the point where we do need to replace it."
In addition to the bridge resurfacing, Venker says work on the double-decker portion of Interstate 64 near downtown St. Louis will continue through 2013, and that current work strengthening the bridge against earthquakes is expected to wrap up in the spring of 2012.
"Pretty much every day we're out there with a one-to-two lane closure in the east bound direction as we're working,” Venker said. “And sometimes in the west bound direction we'll have a lane closed as well. We do send out a weekly release of the lane closures that we have."
In the meantime, Venker says lane and exit closures will continue.