1921 Kansas Avenue Bridge over Kansas River and 23rd Street Viaduct in Kansas City

Bridge: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Historic Bridges; Satellite)

Viaduct: (Archived Bridge Hunter; Satellite)

The Kansas Avenue Bridge in Kansas City, KS, connects with the Avenida Cesar E Chavez (23rd Street) Viaduct in Kansas City, MO.

The bridge is 1,395' (425m) long with a main span of 322' (98m). [HistoricBridges]

The viaduct is 2,381' (725m, 1/2 miles) long. [BridgeHunter_viaduct]

HistoricBridges

Because of the flood wall that we see left of center in the above photo, I could not find any decent street views of the bridge. And because of the trees, HistoricBridges shows that it is hard to get a good elevation shot of the bridge even if you get on the other side of the flood wall. But this model of the bridge on a parade float below gives us a clear view of the north elevation of the bridge. In the above photo and the model below, we cans see that the east truss is cantilevered past its pier and holds up the west end of the steel girders for the approach span.

Archived MyPresentPast

The viaduct carries traffic over the floodplain of the Kansas River and... 

Street View, Apr 2019

...connects with the local roads up on the river bluff.

Street View, Apr 2019

The viaduct was built with concrete girders. This is a section  between expansion joints.

Street View, Dec 2023

During construction, a truss span was damaged because high water and floating ice compromised the falsework.

Engineering News
[The bridge in the background is the abandoned Rock Island Bridge.]

The bridge was closed in July 2022 following an inspection. In Mar 2023, the Unified Government finally authorized money for repairs. Repairs were expected to begin in Aug 2023 and be completed by Feb, 2024. [fox4kc]

Those repairs were emergency repairs, and they would be stranded assets because they plan to replace the bridge by Oct 2029. The average daily traffic is 7,100. [fox4kc_presentation]

I have not been able to find when the repairs were actually completed.

There are two interstate and three local bridges across the Kansas River connecting the KS and MO parts of Kansas City. The closure of this bridge in July 2022 removed two out of the three local bridges because the 1919 Central Avenue Bridge had already been closed Feb 1, 2021. [wycokck]

And Google Map shows that the third local bridge, James Street, is "temporarily closed" when I write this in July 2024.

This photo is what motivated my research of this 1921 bridge and viaduct. But I learned that this is a photo of the I-70 Viaduct.

KKFI 90.1 FM posted
Then-and-now: The Lewis and Clark Viaduct opened to the public in 1907 as a roadway bridge connecting Kansas City, Missouri with Kansas City, Kansas. Built to withstand flooding, the bridge featured a pedestrian walkway, lanes for wagon traffic, and streetcar tracks.