The Union Pacific Railroad bridge, built in 1932, faces imminent demolition.
Advocates for saving the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge in Boonville said they will continue to fight for the bridge, despite Monday’s announcement that the Missouri Department of Natural Resources will turn over the bridge rights to Union Pacific.
“We are not done fighting. They will have to drag us off the bridge,” said Cheryl Lixey, a member of the Save the Bridge steering committee.
The bridge, which crosses the Missouri River, was built in 1932. Union Pacific Railroad plans to demolish the bridge and use its spans to add on to an existing railroad bridge in Osage City.
As one of his last acts in office, former DNR Director Stephen Mahfood, put to use a clause that gave the state rights to the bridge if it accepted all financial responsibility.
Mike Wells, deputy director of the DNR, said it would cost approximately $2 million to restore the bridge — a price the department cannot afford.
“It is not something we could undertake, so we have decided to relinquish the rights to Union Pacific,” he said.
DNR Director Doyle Childers said in a news release that the U.S. Coast Guard saw the bridge as an unreasonable hazard if it was not in use.
“Allowing the railroad to move its bridge to solve a major transportation bottleneck in Osage County is clearly the right thing to do for improvement of our transportation system and the state’s taxpayers,” Childers said in the release.
Although bridge advocates are disappointed by the decision, they plan to continue the fight.
“I have received an outcry from citizens asking what they can do to help. They feel like they need to do something,” said Paula Shannon, chairwoman for the Save the Bridge steering committee.
Shannon said in addition to local support, help is coming from the state and national levels as well.
“We have people from the state and national historic preservation offices working to see what can be done,” Shannon said. “We have also submitted an application to the top 10 most endangered historic places in Missouri list.”
Being placed on this list would prevent the bridge from being moved at the current time.
Shannon said she thinks concerned citizens have not had a fair chance for their voices to be heard.
“We never had the opportunity to show the new director that we have a plan,” Shannon said.
She said she hopes that opportunity will be presented.
“We just want to get our voice out there one more time to show that citizens have not given up,” Shannon said.