Contractors handling the Missouri Department of Transportation’s Northwest Bridge Bundle have delayed the start of a bridge project east of Salisbury by another week.

Capital Paving and Construction, along with engineers Horner and Shifrin, will now begin the project to replace the Route PP bridge over the Middle Fork of the Little Chariton River on Aug. 11. It’s the second delay for the project to replace the 66-year-old bridge that MoDOT had closed in June after its failed inspection. The design-build team still anticipates completing the replacement bridge by December.

The replacement bridge is part of the Northwest Bridge Bundle, which aims to replace or rehabilitate 31 bridges across North Central Missouri over a two-year span. That includes 12 in Chariton County alone. Seven bridges have already been completed. Crews are scheduled to begin work on bridges for Route CC over Yellow Creek and Route KK over Puzzle Creek in September.