The Graphic Arts Road bridge over the Kansas Turnpike will close Monday.
The bridge will be out for nine months as part of the project to improve the turnpike’s Emporia entrance. At one time it seemed as though weather would postpone the closure until later in July. But now, according to the Kansas Department of Transportation, the original July 9 start date is back in force.
The closing will start around 10 a.m. No specific detour will be marked for the bridge.
“We’re just allowing traffic to find its way around,” said Tony Menke, construction manager for the Emporia KDOT office. “The city didn’t want to put in a signed detour and have a lot of traffic congregating at one location.”
It helps, Menke said, that most of the traffic using the bridge is local. That makes it easier for drivers to plan their own routes around the bridge, because there isn’t one ideal path.
“It’s a long way either direction,” he said.
The $32.9 million project to simplify the “spaghetti bowl” of roads leading to the turnpike includes five bridge replacements and two new roundabouts.