Safe, sound and finished

When the Minneapolis bridge collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007, the reverberations were felt around the country. The fact that the seemingly sound structure failed so completely caused nation-wide worry about all the older bridges that spanned the country's rivers.

In Missouri, MoDOT reacted immediately and quickly inspected the oldest bridges with similar structure to the Minneapolis bridge. That inspection was only the beginning. In September, Governor Blunt signed the Safe & Sound Bridge Improvement Project to improve 800 of Missouri's worst bridges in five years.

This week, one of the first bridges under that ground-breaking project will carry traffic again. The Route 00 Bridge over Honey Creek in Johnson County will open tomorrow with a grand ribbon cutting ceremony. This bridge is one of 18 in the county to undergo repair.

A ceremony of this nature is more than a signal to the public that a bridge is open -- it's the completion of a promise: to keep our roads safe, sound and smooth for as long as you need them. It's a promise MoDOT is committed to keeping, one bridge, one road or one bike path at a time.