40 years ago: Kansas River bridge should be replaced, not renovated, engineers say

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Sept. 22, 1973:

Approximately $126,000 of federal funds earmarked for bridge improvements would not be spent in Lawrence, thanks to a report from a Topeka firm that the city had consulted on the project. Money spent renovating the Kansas River bridge would be wasted, the consultants said, and City Manager Buford Watson announced at a press conference that he would recommend construction of a new bridge. Watson also said he was planning to ask the state highway department to look into possible weight limits for the present bridge, which was about 57 years old at the time. “They haven’t said it’s going to fall down or anything like that,” Watson said when reporting on the findings of the consulting firm. “What they have said is that there is very bad deterioration and it will continue to get worse…. Replacement looks like the best technical decision.” If planning were to begin immediately, Watson said, it might take three to five years to build a new bridge, which would probably be located just west of the present one. In the meantime, engineers had recommended possible bracing, and the city intended to resurface the bridge, which was carrying about 17,000 vehicles daily.