Cable-stayed bridge across the Mississippi River between West Alton, Missouri and Alton, Illinois
This article is about the Clark Superbridge carrying U.S. 67 between Illinois and Missouri. For the upstream bridge carrying U.S. 54, see Champ Clark Bridge (2019). For the Second Street Bridge carrying U.S. 31 from Louisville, Kentucky, see George Rogers Clark Memorial Bridge.
The new $85 million, 108-foot-wide bridge (33 m) replaced the old Clark Bridge, which was only 20 ft wide (6.1 m).[1] The truss bridge was built in 1928. The new bridge carries two lanes of divided traffic in each direction, as well as two bike lanes. The old bridge carried only two lanes (similar to the upstream Champ Clark Bridge).
The bridge is sometimes referred to as the Super Bridge, and its construction process was documented in the 1997 NOVA episodeSuper Bridge, which highlighted the challenges of building the bridge, especially during the Great Flood of 1993. Designed by Hanson Engineers under contract to Illinois Department of Transportation (DOT), the Clark Bridge was the first in the United States in which "such a light steel-framed cable-stayed design was combined with a cable saddle type of pylon".[1] The bridge used 8,100 short tons (7,200 long tons; 7,300,000 kg) of structural steel; 44,100 cubic yards (33,700 m3) of concrete; and more than 160 miles (260 km) of cable wrapped with 4 acres (1.6 ha) of yellow plastic piping.[2]
