This project is being sought to alleviate traffic on existing bridges linking Illinois and Missouri in downtown St. Louis. The new bridge will be a cable-stayed bridge with three planes of cables and two single-pylon towers inclined nine degrees from the river and soaring 435 feet above the roadway. The structure will carry relocated Interstate-70 and Interstate-64 and will provide four traffic lanes plus two full shoulders in each direction, making it one of the widest bridges ever built across the Mississippi River at 222 feet. The overall length of the structure will be 3,150 feet and the main channel span, which will completely span the river and eliminate obstructions to river traffic, will be 2,000 feet long.

Part of the original design included a vessel collision study. The objective of the study was to collect vessel collision related data and to determine design vessel collision loads for the final design of the new bridge. The data collected included the following:  

·     Waterway characteristics such as water stage fluctuations and current speeds

·     History of marine accidents in the region and of vessel collisions with nearby bridges

·     Vessel traffic characteristics and navigation conditions such as vessel types and sizes, speeds and loading conditions, navigation procedures and hazards to navigation