Por que não há luzes na Bond Bridge de Kansas City?

Reality Check is a Star series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email realitycheck@kcstar.com.

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Paula Corte of Gladstone drives across the Bond Bridge every day — sometimes more than once.

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But in recent years, she has noticed a change: The lights illuminating the bridge’s support cables have gone out, leaving the road below in the dark.

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“When it had lights on it at night, it was very beautiful and could be seen from a long distance,” Corte recalled. “But more than the aesthetic value of the lights, I believe that it is really a safety issue—it is extremely dark crossing the bridge at night!”

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The Bond Bridge is part of the southernmost end of Interstate 29, landing it under the jurisdiction of the Missouri Department of Transportation. On either side of the bridge, the road is illuminated by streetlights — although some residents have noticed these take on an unusual color in recent years.

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Department spokesperson Melissa Black said the bridge’s decorative “uplights” have been off for several years — but that they were never meant to illuminate the road below.

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“We are currently working on a solution to get these working, but they are just aesthetic lighting meant to light the bridge cables,” she said. “We don’t require lighting continuously of the lanes per our current standards.”

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The department doesn’t have a timeline for when the Bond Bridge’s lights will be replaced.

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Here’s what we know about the lighting on this and other bridges spanning the Missouri River.

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Why is the Bond Bridge in the dark?

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The Bond Bridge’s decorative lighting was installed around the time the bridge was built in 2008, Black said. But constant exposure to Missouri’s weather eventually caused these lights to fail, leading the state to seek another solution.

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“The bridge lighting isn’t functional because the housing of the lights has deteriorated,” Black said. “The harsh elements of the weather makes it hard to find a lighting type that can withstand snow, salt (and) constant water from the river.”

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When MoDOT looked into replacing the lights, they found that the type it used originally was not being made anymore — and that very few suppliers had suitable substitutes. Rather than going in to fix individual lights whenever one failed, the department decided to turn off the bridge’s lights entirely until they could all be replaced with a more durable option.

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“It is maintenance intensive, and can require certain traffic control in order to get to the lights and fix them,” Black said. “We are working on a long-term solution, rather than going out there continuously for small fixes.”

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While Black pointed out that the Bond Bridge lights were not intended to illuminate the road, other bridges in the area do have lighting due to partnerships with the city.

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The nearby Heart of America Bridge and the Buck O’Neil Bridge, also managed by MoDOT, both have streetlights.

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Black noted that Kansas City will fund the lights along the new Buck O’Neil Bridge following its reconstruction, and that bridges are generally only lighted where local municipalities have agreed to help maintain them.

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Do you have more questions about infrastructure in Kansas City? Ask the Service Journalism team at kcq@kcstar.com.

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