Residents who live near Shawnee County's Willard Bridge are concerned about the timetable for replacing it. Engineers are in the process of designing a new bridge, which is actually the Carlson Road Bridge across the Kansas River.

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County engineers are actually in the design stage and are not ready to build. That’s because there's no funding for the replacement project. County officials said it’s public support that will be the backbone in building a new bridge.

Jennifer Anderson and her family have lived next to the Willard Bridge for five years now.

“Frightens a lot of people going over it because it's a very unusual bridge,” said Anderson.

Unusual because the structure is out of date, it was built in the 1950's with a pin and hangar design. It’s the same design that caused the 2007 Minneapolis bridge disaster and resulted in the death of 13 people.

The Willard Bridge is supported by six pins and if one fails, the entire structure would collapse.

"We want the bridge replaced before something like that would ever happen,” said Shawnee County Public Works Director Tom Vlach.

Vlach secured $150 thousand from county commissioners Thursday. Those funds are for the second phase of planning for the bridge replacement project. Right now, county officials do not have the money to fund the construction of the $21 million project.
“We know there is a finite amount of time while this bridge has a useful life and we want to be proactive in getting it replaced,” said Vlach.

Vlach said the bridge is safe and has another at least 10 more years of life left. Since the county officials have no source for construction cash right now, Vlach urged the public to push the their legislators for funding.