By Maria Altman, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis, MO – Martin Luther King Bridge is closed for the next twelve days in an effort to make it safer.
Several cross-over fatalities have occurred on the bridge between St. Louis and East St. Louis. Now the Illinois Department of Transportation is spending one-point-four million dollars to make changes.
IDOT chief engineer Jeff Church says there will now be a barrier between oncoming traffic and fewer, though wider lanes.
"Most of the work actually just entails placing the concrete barrier, but they're also going to be doing replacing some of the existing surface and restriping the pavement so it'll be the three lanes instead of the four lanes we now have."
The bridge will have two eastbound lanes and one westbound.
Church says the contractor could earn up to 100-thousand dollars more if they finish the work early.