He compared it to a paper clip — when you keep bending it back and forth, it eventually will break. The new concrete driving surface will help stop such bending, which causes cracking. And it’s better for cars, he said, while making the bridge stiffer so it doesn’t bend or bounce as much.

In 2015 the inspection score of the bridge’s superstructure, which is the part of the bridge above the piers that supports the deck and connects other parts of the bridge, was lowered from a five to a four due to the number of new cracks.

Many of those were addressed with work on the westbound lanes, and the new project will address issues on the eastbound side, Heckman said.

The bridge is inspected yearly, which can cause traffic backups. Yearly inspections will continue after this project for a time, but could be stretched out to every two years if results are good.

“We’re hoping that will be more a savings for us and more convenient for the public that we don’t need to do as many inspections as we do now,” Heckman said.

MoDOT says 866 of its 10,400 bridges are in poor condition, a newer classification to align with federal standards that replaces what the agency previously had defined as critical bridges.