The great flood of 1903 inundated all of the West Bottoms, leaving only one of 17 bridges in place that spanned the Kansas River sound enough for use.

Data secured showed there was enough traffic to warrant the building of the viaduct by a private enterprise and capital investment.

The bondholders proposed to demolish the bridge and sell its trusses for scrap metal; these plans were ultimately rejected.

[6] In 1919, intersections with side roads on the viaduct began to be permanently closed in order to increase safety.

][9] Construction on a new lower roadway began in early 1930, and would serve as a truck bypass of the upper deck, which would allow the remaining automobiles to have their speed limit raised to be higher than before.

[3] In August 1933, city planners began planning to modernize the viaduct, widening the auto roadway to have two extra lanes that did not exist before.

[14] It would also involve removing pedestrian walkway and streetcar tracks to allow for the extra two lanes; the latter had already been replaced by a contemporary bus system however.

[citation needed] Later, the city also replaced the old lighting with new sodium-vapor illumination cast on cross arms 26 feet (7.9 m) over the vehicle deck.

[citation needed] The viaduct survived the 1951 Great Kansas City flood; it was also the only bridge on the river to remain open to traffic during it.

On November 12, 1962,[2] the new Intercity Viaduct was opened, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Mayors Paul F. Mitchum and H. Roe Bartle.

Additionally, it had a small single-lane truss that stuck out from the side near the Broadway Boulevard intersection; this served as an exit ramp onto the Fairfax Trafficway.

This involved tubbing off all of the old steel piers and replacing them with modern concrete piers, replacing its deck, completely demolishing part of the land span on the Kansas side order to construct an interchange, and demolishing then reconstructing parts of the viaduct in order to allow for the addition of on-ramps to serve as exits for I-70.

[23] On January 25, 1969, both structures were officially rededicated as the Lewis and Clark Viaduct, as an act of legislation between Kansas and Missouri.

[27] In May 1981, a 1,000-foot (300 m) stretch of the westbound viaduct was reconstructed, despite only being 18 years old, it was not designed the same way as the other sections, did not meet modern steel standards, and had prematurely deteriorated because of this.

[29] At this point, the westbound viaduct was closed so it could be redecked and have its I-70 ramp reconstructed with a third beam; the former was completed in 1982, making it a redundant structure.

[21][30] In 1986, the eastbound I-70 ramp was reconstructed with a third beam, like its westbound equivalent two years earlier; this made it a redundant structure.

[30] In 1999, construction work was started on a project to redeck the lower level of the eastbound viaduct to serve pedestrian traffic.

[32] On January 29, 2007, the eastbound viaduct celebrated its centennial; several people gathered from West Bottoms on that day, holding lights to honor the bridge.

[30] By the late 2000s, both viaducts had deteriorated significantly, while maintenance did not decrease their structural integrity, they required nearly $1,000,000 a year to keep in a state of competence.

[33] They were also considered functionally obsolete due to lacking emergency shoulders among many other things, resulting in the snarling of traffic when an accident or other obstruction occurred.

On February 4, 2018,[34] phase 1 of the project was started, and the westbound span was closed in order to demolish and rebuild a 0.58-mile (0.93 km) segment of it, from the 3rd Street intersection to the end of crossing the railroad tracks.

Only one week after reopening, one of the westbound viaducts extant approaches were damaged by a truck that crashed into a guardrail at a sharp angle, along with other cars that fell off.

[37] On March 15, 2021, a reopening ceremony was held by KDOT secretary Julie Lorenz and U.S. representative Sharince Davids.

[39] Lighting was also added to the Kansa River segment, and the piers were widened to add an adequate shoulder, additionally, repairs were made to other parts of the viaduct.

Like the original westbound truss, it is considered functionally obsolete, with structure lacking shoulders, and narrow travel lanes.

[33] The westbound offramp in particular is dangerous, as a high number of unfamiliar drivers cause accidents due to its confusing left hand exit and lack of shoulders.