With the end of pool season approaching, the bridge into Whitecliff Park will soon be completely removed and replaced.

Closure of the bridge will began Tuesday, with the bridge remaining closed for several months until the project is completed. The city’s contract with Gershenson Construction, the engineering firm working on the project, states that all work must be completed by May 3, 2025.

While construction is underway, all Whitecliff Park Community Center visitors and staff must enter through the upper parking lot, near the tennis court, along Vauk Lane.

“Police have been installing their equipment and devices throughout the various streets that residents will use to get to the temporary entrance of the park once that bridge closes. We now have a good baseline of traffic volumes and traffic speeds,” Mayor Scott Shipley said. “Once that bridge closes and traffic starts diverting through those neighborhoods, if there’s issues that arise, we’ll be easily able to identify that and work on that.”

This project came to be as every two years, the Missouri Department of Transportation inspects six bridges spanning 20 feet or more throughout Crestwood. In 2019, MoDOT’s inspection rated two components of the Whitecliff main bridge as “poor,” with an overall sufficiency rating of 58%.

Because at least one component of the bridge was rated “poor,” the project was eligible for a federal grant as part of the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, which the city applied for and was awarded. The grant will cover the majority of the estimated costs for the replacement, about $1.24 million, with Crestwood covering the remaining $750,000.