Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge

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The Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge is a cable-stayed bridge that crosses the Mississippi River, connecting St. Louis, Missouri, with St. Clair County, Illinois. It carries four lanes of Interstate 70 and can be expanded to six lanes in the future. The bridge opened on February 9, 2014, and is named in honor of St. Louis Cardinals great Stan Musial; President Obama signed the naming into law on July 12, 2013.

Key facts:
- Total length: 2,803 feet (854 meters)
- Main span: 1,500 feet (457 meters)
- Width: about 102 feet (31 meters)
- Clearance below: 75 feet (23 meters)
- Towers reach about 435 feet (133 meters) above the roadway

Design and construction:
- The bridge is a cable-stayed design with two tall towers.
- It uses about 1,000 miles of stay-cable strands.
- Construction included roughly 15,000 tons of structural steel, 8,600 tons of reinforcing steel, and about 90,600 cubic yards of concrete.
- Foundations use 12-foot-diameter drilled piers reaching bedrock due to loose sands beneath the river.
- Built from 2010 to 2013, with a final cost of about $695 million.
- The bridge allows room for a future companion bridge and was designed to relieve traffic on nearby crossings.

Traffic and impact:
- When opened, I-70 was realigned and connected differently to I-55/I-64/I-70 in East St. Louis; downtown St. Louis’ I-70 was redesignated as I-44.
- The project aimed to reduce congestion on nearby bridges, though results varied over time.
- Initial traffic was lower than projections, but by 2017 daily traffic rose to about 53,700 vehicles, higher than some early estimates.

Naming and notable details:
- The bridge is commonly called the Stan Span and was officially named the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge after lengthy naming discussions.
- The stretch of I-70 from the bridge to I-44 is designated the Andy Gammon Memorial Highway, in memory of a worker who died during construction in 2012.
- The project faced funding debates between Illinois and Missouri and included considerations of tolls and privatization before a toll-free crossing was approved.

In summary, the Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge is a major cable-stayed bridge that improved cross-river travel, adding a scalable, long-term route for I-70 traffic between Missouri and Illinois.