As Platte-Winner Bridge construction begins, future Missouri River projects loom

Listen to an audio version of this story produced by reporter Meghan O’Brien. Broadcasters: See below for a downloadable version with a host intro script.

The South Dakota Department of Transportation estimates it will need to replace nearly 900 bridges or culverts over the next several decades, which could cost about $5 billion, according to a presentation Thursday to the state Transportation Commission.

That includes the planned replacement of five bridges that cross the Missouri River. The first of those projects is the Platte-Winner Bridge, where state leaders broke ground to start the project earlier this month. The cost of that project is about $300 million.

The total cost of the other four Missouri River bridge projects is projected to be about $1.3 billion.

Work begins on spendiest bridge project in South Dakota history

The bridge that spans the river near Forest City on U.S. Highway 212 will be the next Missouri River project, where state transportation officials are conducting a study for a new bridge. That project is expected to cost about $400 million, said Bridge Program Manager Steve Johnson, and is planned to be completed by 2036.

A project for a U.S. Highway 12 bridge and a BNSF railroad crossing near Mobridge is projected to be completed by 2038 and cost $350 million, with a study to begin soon.

Also in the works is a project on Interstate 90 in Chamberlain, which is still in early planning stages, with a projected completion in 2040 and an estimated cost of $305 million.

A final project will be on the state Highway 1806 bridge, north of Mobridge and leading to Wakpala on the Standing Rock Reservation, with a planned completion date of 2042 and an estimated cost of $257 million.

How much the federal government will pitch in for those projects is yet to be determined, according to Transportation Secretary Joel Jundt.

“That’ll be key for us as we move forward to knowing what that picture might look like,” Jundt told commission members. The state “relied heavily” on a $65 million federal grant for the Platte-Winner Bridge, he said, but federal programs “really need to be determined for us to say here’s how much money we’re going to need from the state side.”

The state also recently completed construction of a replacement for the Pierre-Fort Pierre bridge, which crosses the Missouri River, at a cost of $50 million.